KIU: The Sanguine Chronicles - Proteus Saga
by TwoFatNinjas
Summary: After escaping the dark lord of the Inter-Dimensional Mercenary Elite Corps.(IMEC) our Anti-Hero, Sanguine seeks to crush his opposition and protect his new friends with the help of some familiar faces. Battles will be fought! Things will explode! 4th walls will be broken!…by Sanguine and the cast of Kid Icarus of course. Rating may become M for later chapters. But who knows right!
1. Chapter 2: An Assault for Two

**An Assault for Two****:**

Sanguine covered his face in recoil when a blinding light engulfed his surroundings the second he leapt through the transporter Jackass style. Eventually after what seemed like years, Sanguine uncovered his face to find that he was standing on top of a bright cloud.

"What is this!" Sanguine yelled,"This is a cloud right?!"

[_"Uhh, yeah it is…what about it?_"] Hexus replied back through their telecommunication

"What about it?! What about it is that I am STANDING on a CLOUD as if it were solid ground! It's a cloud, this is defying all kinds of physics right now!"

[_"Well, to be fair, you are in a **GAME UNIVERSE** Sanguine! Now regardless of that what do you see, describe your surroundings."_]

"*Sigh*…Okay, um…There's clouds all around me, uhh…I see some golden Greek Pantheons and other structures about a mile away…oh hey! there's some funny looking' flying midgets in gladiatorial armor a ways away…yeah…preeeety sure I died on the way to my destination and now I'm in Heaven…well Hexus it's been a fun journey, think I'm gonna go fi-"

[_"No no no! what you said is exactly the description of the place your at." Hexus quickly interrupted."Congradulations Sanguine you've successfully made it to Skyworld!"_]

**(Skyworld)**

"Yeah, what the bold text said…" Sanguine said as he shoved the sub-text out of the way. "*SNIIIIIIIIF*…Ahhhh, smell that air, smells like…thinning oxygen, good thing I don't need air to live." Sanguine stated

[_"Right, well anyways Sanguine see if you can find __anyone to ta-"_]

"Wait Hexus shut up…you hearin' what i'm hearing?" …

[_"Heeeeaaring what…exactly, I'm not hearing anything?"_]

"No no, I'm hearing something, it sounds like … fighting?"

[_"Fighting? Sanguine, you better stay away from that, for all we know it could be too dangerous to engage!"_]

"Nope screw that!" Sanguine stated abruptly,"I'm going in guns blazing!" Sanguine took off flying through the air as he approached the source of the commotion.

[_"Sanguine! Hold on you don't know what __you're getting yourself_ into!"] Hexus pleaded, but it was no use Sanguine ignored his friend's warning and hid himself snuggly behind a big cloud that looked like a shrub and observed.

"Weird, it looks like a giant goofy flaming skull fighting a white winged angel, he looks young too…hmm… Hey Hexus, should I kill him?" Sanguine asked with gusto

[_"What?! No, remember Sanguine you want to make friends and allies for our cause not enemies against us! Go help him fight it!"_]

"Alright! I finally get to kill something…okay on five…1…2..oh screw it! 5- **YAHHHHH**!" Sanguine yelled and leapt out of cover and high into the sky grabbing the attention of both combatants.

Sanguine seemed to vanish in an instant, only to reappear behind the Clubberskull in a split second. Before the flaming powerhouse could retaliate, Sanguine threw an uppercut at the foe with enough sheer force to shatter a planet straight at the skull, sending it sailing into the sky. Also, if that wasn't enough, Sanguine quickly charged a powerful energy blast in his hands which he promptly sent soaring straight at the Clubberskull! As the shot made contact, many hearts exploded from the battered skull's torched corpse raining down from on high as they homed in on Sanguine which he absorbed in order to collect the points.

Sanguine then powered down to regain his composure."Well that heart explod-ey thingy sure is new, you don't see that every day, huh…"

"THAT WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!" Sanguine turned to meet the source of the voice only to come face-to-face with a young angel who was shorter than him with the most ecstatic expression on his face that anyone would ever see.

"Wow you really saved my skin back there! That Clubberskull got the upper hand on me and I'm sure I would've been finished if you hadn't come along!" The Angel stated with relief.

"Hey man, ain't no thang." Sanguine retorted with acknowledgement. "The names Sanguine, ex-mercenary, lover, part time cook, and I think I was a soothsayer at one point in time, destroyer of sanity, whatever else you want to call me…I digress though, pleasure to make your acquaintance." Sanguine raised a brofist up to the Angel.

"I'm Pit, lead commander of Lady Palutena's army…uh, pleasure's all mine!"Pit raised his hand and shook Sanguine's fist firmly not understanding the concept of the brofist.

"Righty then,"Sanguine stated with dissatisfaction,"We're gonna have to work on that later. Anyways, what's a guy like you doing out here getting attacked by ClubberRubberChainsawWhateveryoucallits huh?" Sanguine asked

"Well, my superior, Lady Palutena, asked me to patrol the area for any leftover Underworld forces that haven't been dealt with, and while I was taking a break that Clubberskull jumped me." Pit stated back in defeat

"Hey don't get yourself down, we all get jumped every now and then, I mean just this last week I was taking this hour long piss at a urinal and this foot soldier snuck up behind me and tried shotgun blasting my wang off, but I dodged out of the way in time and blew him to hell and back with his own shotgun, then I ate like...3 Hot Pockets before I passed out drunk in my friends Cadillac…Ah, good times…that's all behind me now though." Sanguine said

Pit stared back at him in utter confusion,"What are you even going on about? What's a Hot Pocket, or a Cah-dill-lack?"

"Nothing you should worry about, just thinking out loud for most of that." Sanguine stated in reassurance.

"Well hey Sanjeen-"

"Sanguine."

"Right, Sanguine, you should come with me to meet my friends an-"

"PIT!" A female voice suddenly rang out in his head.

"Lady Palutena?!" Pit thought back, a look of concern becoming apparent on his face. "Lady Palutena what is it?!"

"Pit...enemies...Underworld...help..." Palutena's telepathy was riddled with static in Pit's mind as she seemed to struggle in her speech as she could only relay keywords.

"Lady Palutena? LADY PALUTENA!?" Pit yelled out in his mind feverishly waiting for a response from her...but none came...

"Oh no..." Pit said with great worry.

"So, your lady friend's in trouble huh?" Sanguine stated in a half concerned, half humorous attitude.

Pit looked up at Sanguine to see him looking back with his arms crossed across his chest in a manly fashion,"Wha-how did you..."

Sanguine put a finger against his head in a smartass manner," I'm also capable of telepathic manipulation, I can hear your conversations loud as day.

"Oh, uh...cool I guess,"Pit replied in a nervous manner looking down

"Hey, relax Pit,"Sanguine reassured,"I'm not gonna hound you for your thoughts, your conversations are your business, I'll leave it there."

"Oh thank goodness,"Pit breathed a sigh of relief."But right now that's of least importance! It is my duty as the captain of Lady Palutena's guard to save her from any danger she faces, no matter the threat!" Pit stated with firm confidence."Sanguine!"

"Yo."

"Are you up to the task of helping me purge the evil forces of the Underworld that threaten my people and Lady Palutena!"

"Quick question...does your place have steak, mutton or any other kind of meat?..."

"Uh, yeah...we have a kitchen full of food."

"**WELL HOT DAMN! **YOU CAN COUNT ME IN OL' PITTY OL' PAL, you and me man, we will conquer the WORLD and anyone who apposes our might will be crushed with a pile of acid coated BRICKS!"

"Woah, hey now, calm yourself Sanguine, we won't quite do that..." Pit stated nervously.

"Ahem ... sorry about that I got a bit carried away there." Sanguine apologized and regained his calmness. "Now about saving your lady friend..."

"Right, we've been talking for too long, we must save Lady Palutena right away!" Pit charged forward on his cloud and leapt up into the air...only to fall flat on his face in quite the humorous manner.

"Alright Pit, now's not the best time to play dumbass, we should go now, for real." Sanguine stated while smiling

Pit slowly dragged himself up from the ground while rubbing the back of his head,"Ow, it's no good, with Lady Palutena in danger she can't help me activate the power of flight!"

"Well why didn't you say so!" Sanguine stated in an affirmative manner,"I can fly without assistance, grab on Pit."

"Attention all passengers this is your captain speaking, we're looking at a short flight today, winds seem to be in the low regions, please fasten your seatbelts at the indicati-"

"SANGUINE WE'RE LOSING PRECIOUS TIME!" Pit yelled in annoyance

"Okay! Fine! I was just trying to lighten the mood...aaaand we're off!

Sanguine wrapped his arm around Pit's waist and the two took off to the skies.

[_"Hello...hello! Sanguine! Are you there?!"_]

"Hey Hexus! What's up buddy, glad to see you're still kickin'!"

[_"What's up buddy?! Are you mentally insane Sanguine?!"_] Hexus yelled back, his voice loud enough for the telecommunication to be heard by both Pit and Sanguine.

"Was it something I said Hexus? You're not usually this pissed..." Sanguine responded sheepishly

[_"Why don't you take a guess dude! You cut off communication with me before leaping straight into the face of danger, for all I know you could've been dead!"_]

"Okay mom, calm down, first of all, this is MY story! I'll do whatever the hell I feel is necessary, and two I was busy conversing with my new buddy Pit, Pit meet Hexus, Hexus, Pit.

"Hello Hexus,"Pit said,"I'm sure your his friend...or something?"

[_"His angry friend, yes, also his go-to guy for info on others, and his eyes and ears in the sky, I can also see through his eyes and hear through his ears, sounds creepy I know, but It's necessary for proper communication, other than that, well met Pit."_]

"Okay guys, we're heeeeere!" Sanguine exclaimed as he touched down on Palutena's Temple And let go of Pit.

* * *

**(Palutena's Temple)**

As they both looked around, with Hexus peering through Sanguine's eyes, they noticed the destruction strewn around the place

"Who or what could have done something like this?" Pit said in disbelief, a look of remorse crossing his face.

"I have no idea, but whoever did it must really hate you..." Sanguine replied

Hexus spoke to both of the heroes after a long silence, [_"Guys, I've seen attacks like this before, this was no random assault, this attack was planned!"_]

"Then who could have done this!" Pit yelled in frustration desperately seeking a rational explanation for the carnage.

Before any of the three could clue in more to the current situation, a damaged Centurion ran up to Pit noticeably out of breath,"C-commander," he stammered," They came out of the blue, in droves, a-ambushed us, a cloaked figure...leading the attack, captured Lady Palutena...

"What else do you know!?" Pit struggled for more information

"T-the remnants of the Underworld army were being l-led by a cloaked man who singlehandedly wiped out a good portion of the Centurion army before kidnapping Palutena..."

The Centurion tried to continue, but collapsed on the ground from pure exhaustion.

"Ahh, the ol' catch em' with their pants down guerrilla technique...that's like Bush League levels of cheapness," Sanguine chimed

"Sanguine!" Pit started,"We have to move out now, can you find out where Lady Palutena is being held?"

"Can do! Hexus!"

[_"On it, I'm pinpointing her heat signature right now … aaaannd bingo! She's in the Main Hall, just head north from your current position."_]

"Got it, Pit! Let's move." Sanguine said with a leader's tude'.

"Right!" Pit replied with confidence.

Pit knocked an arrow in his bow and prepared his claws while Sanguine summoned up MANLY energy that surged through him and crackled all over his body.

[_"Wait Sanguine! Before you go, remember that you can manipulate your probability and luck!"_]

"Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me! I'm not sure how I keep forgetting that... that really seems like something you wouldn't forget, but I do anyway…I don't know Im probably just dumb." Sanguine retorted

["_Where have you been…_"] Hexus stated with a stone cold demeanor

* * *

Sanguine and Pit both fought their way up to the main hall, with Pit shooting and clawing at any and all Underworld troops, and Sanguine punching, kicking, blasting enemies off of ledges and using his luck manipulation to cause enemies to trip and fall off ledges, make their weapons jam, or straight-up miss. Eventually the two warriors made their way into the main hall where, sure enough, Palutena was being held captive in a cage with a mysterious hooded figure lounging in her throne carelessly toying with an apple in his hands, with no regard for the two heroes that stood before him baring their weapons.

Pit was the first to speak up,"YOU… were you the one who did all this?!"

The figure stopped playing around with the apple, stopping dead in his tracks, he turned his head slowly to Pit in a crooked manner, his face cloaked in darkness from the shadow cast by his hood, crushing the apple altogether in one swift motion before responding.

"…**Perhaps**…" His voice had a threatening icy tone to it that sent a shiver up and down your spine, one that could drop a grown man to his knees in fear.

His voice caught both Pit and Palutena off guard, causing them to tense up in recoil, Pit was the first to break free of this, staring down the cloaked man as best he could.

The voice did not sway Sanguine as much as the other two, in fact, it sounded sort of familiar to him...

"Who are you, and why are you here?!" Pit demanded trying his best not to sound nervous.

The figure got up from the throne slowly, and walked down the golden staircase, meeting the two face to…well, cloaked face before speaking

"**I go by many names…but you may call me…Malus, why I'm here…to conquer and destroy, but enough about me, let's kill YOU!**"

Malus charged forward at the two heroes, drawing a dark and menacing sword from the sleeve of his cloak, only for it to clash with Pit's claws.

Sanguine vanished from sight and appeared overhead, coming down fast with an energy blast at the ready, Malus however, expected this and also vanished from sight.

"Oh crap…" was all Sanguine could say before his blast met contact with the floor and the ensuing collateral sent both he and Pit flying in opposite directions.

Sanguine quickly leapt up trying to find where Malus went off to. Sanguine tried to use his Telepathy to pinpoint his location, but something was disrupting his connection.

Pit was also in the midst of locating Malus as he knocked another arrow in his bow."Show yourself and face judgement for your crimes!" Pit also couldn't see where he was, but both could hear him loud and clear.

"**Give up and die…you can't win, ****you're only wasting your time and effort, your army is dead, your leader, captured. I am the final judge of who lives and who dies, and I have chosen death for all who are living!"**

Malus' voice echoed in the halls, but with no body to match it, he had seemingly disappeared, his tirade carrying through the room like a ghost.

Pit retaliated,"What you say is nothing but lies! Who do you even think you are anyways!"

"**God,**" Malus replied with an evil, yet icy tone.**  
**

Sanguine charged another blast, dark blue energy radiating off of his palm, ready for him to jump out at anytime, when suddenly, a voice interrupted his train of thought.

["_Hi Sanguine, miss me?_"] Hexus said

"Hexus! Thank God, do you know where Malus is hiding? I can't track him with my telepathy, its being interrupted!" Sanguine thought

[ _Two steps ahead of the game, man. The bastard's disguising his heat signature, but he made the mistake of using PSI psycho energy to disrupt yours and Palutena's telepathy!"_]

"So it was him…" Sanguine thought back

[ _"I'm currently tracking his telepathic waves…there! He's hiding behind the top right pillar at the farthest end of the floor!"_] Hexus exclaimed

"Oh is he now?" Sanguine couldn't help crack a smile now that he knew that he got the upper hand.

[_"Hold on, I've been observing your battle with Malus, he'll be expecting you if you engage him directly, try and find a way to ambush him, good luck!"_]

Sanguine observed his surroundings, and found a mirror close to the pillar. "Of course! The mirror!" Sanguine thought in surprise as two and two clicked.

Sanguine kicked up his luck manipulation, and then aimed his blast at the mirror, he noticed that Malus and Pit were too busy in their shouting match about the philosophical quandaries of life and death for Malus to notice Sanguine aiming for him.

"Good job Pit." Sanguine thought,"The guy involuntarily distracted him for me."

Sanguine fired the beam of pure energy directly at the mirror, causing it to reflect off the surface and hit Malus directly in the face, knocking him off the pillar mid-sentence and stunning him momentarily.

"BOOM headshot! 50 points!" Sanguine yelled in accomplishment.

Sanguine wasted no time for Malus to recuperate, and directly charged the cloaked menace head-on, giving Malus enough time to look up in astonishment as Sanguine's foot made direct contact with Malus' face, soccer punting him into the sunset far off from the temple.

"AND IT'S A HOOOOOOOOME RUN!" Sanguine yelled putting on his best announcer voice.

Sanguine turned around in time to see Pit free Palutena from her prison. The Goddess of Light descended from the cage in front of the two cloaked in heavenly light.

"Thank you for freeing me Pit," Palutena congratulated him, then turning her attention to Sanguine," And you have my deepest thanks for dealing with that menace, what was his name…Malus? Yes, thank you both for saving me!" She gave both the heroes her regards before again returning her attention to Sanguine," What is your name if I may ask?"

Sanguine readied his signature stance cracking a sly grin.

"Oh boy this again…" Pit sighed in annoyance

Sanguine simply ignored his statement and began," I am Sanguine Carbide, ex-mercenary elite, lover of women, banned from over 258 petting zoos across the multiverse, and I also kick bad guys in the face now, so that's a thing I guess…" Sanguine stated while raising a brofist

Palutena stared at the mercenary in wonderment before responding with a brofist of her own, the two fist bumped, and Sanguine turned toward Pit,"See! Palutena knows what's up!"

Palutena responded with a statement of her own,"…lover of women huh?"

"PALUTENA!" Pit yelled, his face evolving a massive blush,"You shouldn't say things like that it's embarrassing."

"pitdon'tcockblockme," Sanguine said under his breath.

"What was that?" Pit asked

"Nothing at all! Anyways, Palutena!"

"Yes, what is it?"

"I've come a long way, and fought many foes to warn you all of a threat much more lethal than Malus that endangers all of Skyworld, Angel Land, and the Underworld." Sanguine said in a serious demeanor.

"Bigger than Malus?" Palutena exclaimed with concern plastering her calm face.

"What kind of threat exactly?" Pit asked Sanguine

"Let's discuss this over dinner cause I'm freakin' starving!" Sanguine yelled as he charged off into the kitchen.

* * *

**Authors Note:**

**Ooh, Malus and Proteus… mo' threats equal mo' problems for the others.**

**Don't expect future chapters to be this long, I just had a lot of time on my hands and decided that you people deserve the exciting stuff!**

**I feel the battle between Malus vs. Pit and Sanguine is a lot more epic with music try this one:**

**Position Music - Resolution: ** watch?v=o9DLewEUrr8

**Well, see you in the next chapter hopefully our heroes will be enlightened on the true enemy! Also some more familiar characters will show themselves!**

**-TwoFatNinjas**


	2. Chapter 3: He's a Force of Nature

**He's a Force of Nature:**

**(Palutena's Dining Hall)**

**22:00 Hours / Night Time**

All three of our heroes sat alongside a long dining table in a dimly lit chamber illuminated by a few torches lining the pristine chamber. Sanguine at the head of the table, chowing down on a plate stacked to the brim with all sorts of various meats, chicken, and steaks like a ravenous animal, but somehow retaining basic table manners…(How does that even work?!)

Leaving both Palutena and Pit sitting parallel from each other staring intently at Sanguine.

"Sooooooo…" Palutena began after a long silence. Sanguine held up a finger in gesture to let him finish eating. As he finished the the last bite of the protein mountain before him, he breathed a sigh of satisfaction before speaking.

"Uh…to tell you the truth, I kinda forgot what I was going to tell you…must've been all that dinner." Sanguine stated soothingly.

"To tell us about the larger threat to us than this Malus jerk!" Pit urged insistently.

"Mah boi," Sanguine began, sipping wine from a chalice,"There is an encroaching disaster trying to track me down ever since I left his ranks and defied his authority…I escaped his wrath by coming here through a dimensional transporter my friend built for our team's raid trips."

"YOU MEAN YOU'RE LEADING HIM TO US?!" Pit stated in shock.

"Look Pit-buddy, I just had to distance myself from him as best I could, and Skyworld was the farthest from here, I never intended to screw you all over on purpose, and besides, this is good! Now we have more time to strategize and build our resistance." Sanguine replied in reassurance.

["_Hello?…Is this working properly?_"] Hexus started through, using his telecommunication to an extent as to be heard audibly by all members in the dining hall.

"You must be the friend Sanguine was talking about," Palutena said

["_I would be he, currently I'm strategizing a feasible approach to striking back at both Malus and the bigger threat ahead, but I'm open to any and all suggestions if there's any._"]

"What exactly is this 'bigger threat' calling himself anyways?" Pit asked in curiosity

Sanguine dropped his voice down low,"…**Proteus**…dun-dun-DUUUUUUUUN!"

"He shouldn't be that big of a danger anyways!" Pit stated confidently," I've gone toe-to-toe with plenty of gods before, and won! Heck, I even beat the Lord of the Underworld myself! Why should this be any different?

["_Oh Pit, if only you __weren't so naive…Proteus isn't like any of the other gods you faced before, the man killed a God of Creation with his bare hands and usurped his power and throne, only then creating his elite team of 5, including me and Sanguine, endowed us all with powers and abilities of all sorts, and sent us to pillage other game universes and kill off their inhabitants in order to plunder resources and powers, hell, he even made an army of 1,000,000 Gemini Legionaries._"] Hexus replied bluntly

"But why?" Palutena asked in confusion

Sanguine was the first to reply,"To be honest, me, Hexus, and our other crew members never got a straight answer from him when we asked, he said it was all for a good cause and that in time we would find out…lotta good that cheeky bastard did for us."

["_We destroyed…millions…of lives…killed, so many of the undeserving, and all because Proteus led us astray for his own intentions and purposes…he has to be stopped, or we will all perish…_"] Hexus stated with deep regret.

"If you're gonna go after this guy then I want in!" A darker voice rang out as a black wnged angel flew in from an open window, his wings glowing a sinister purple as he landed, he walked over and took a seat at the table.

"PITTOO?!" "DARK PIT?!" both Pit and Palutena said respectively and in surprise.

"Don't get so uptight about me showing up guys, and stop calling me that Pit!" The fallen angel known as Dark Pit stated in spite.

"Listen, I've been eavesdropping on your discussion for a while now, and if these Malus and Proteus guys mean what they say in terms of Skyworld's future, then I will do whatever it takes to stop these pathetic clowns dead in their tracks." Dark Pit stated carelessly

"Awwww, Dark Pit, I didn't know you had a soft spot for all of your friends!" Palutena stated lovingly

"Oh please," Dark Pit started back with contempt,"I'm not doing this for any of you! This Proteus joke says that he'll kill all of us in due time if we don't stop him, me included! If anything I'm doing this for my sake!"

["_Regardless of where you stand Dark Pit, the more support we have for our efforts, the better our chances will be of stopping Malus' and Proteus' efforts of complete destruction!_"] Hexus replied

"Yeah, and if we win, I can finally buy that deluxe bouncy house I've always wanted!" Sanguine stated with glee

["_Ooh, the one that looks like a castle and is all purple and stuff!_"] Hexus replied instantly with equal amounts of child-like joy.

"Um, DUH! What other bouncy house would I be talking about dude? I mean really there's even a bi-"

"Can you two idiots talk about this elsewhere! We have actual business to take care of first!" Dark Pit stated with great annoyance.

"It's uh, it's Sanguine, not idiot Dark Pit…" Sanguine retorted unwavered

"Pfft, whatever…" Dark Pit said carelessly, crossing his arms in a chill manner, blowing a lock of black hair out of his face and staring daggers at Sanguine who responded with a humorous stare of his own.

Eventually Dark Pit blinked and Sanguine simply responded with a hushed "… I win"

Palutena spoke up after a long while of silence,"Well, if we're trying to gather strength in numbers against Proteus, we're going to need extra help. I can round up any extra centurions leftover from today's battle, but in the morning I want you and Sanguine to talk to Viridi and convince her to lend her Forces of Nature to aid us in combat."

Pit perked up at the sound of hearing Viridi's name," Oh boy! We get to go see Viridi! Uh…I-um, mean, uh…great, let's go convince Viridi in the morning! Sounds like a SWELL plan…heh…um, yeah…"

Sanguine was no fool though, (Most of the time at least…), and immediately caught on to Pit, glancing at him while trying to hide a grin. Eventually he stood up from the table in a MANLY fashion.

"Well then, morning it is! Until tomorrow men, and lady…Palutena!" Sanguine said

"Yes?"

"Where am I crashin' for the night?"

"Oh, right this way." Palutena said as she got up from the table and beckoned Sanguine to follow her.

* * *

As they walked up the staircase together Palutena spoke up.

"You really shouldn't mind Dark Pit as much, the guy is just like that, it's how he was made, I mean he IS the exact opposite from Pit, from color scheme, to arsenal and fighting style, to even his cheery attitude...

"You know with a name like DARK Pit, I'm not all too surprised the dude's at MLG levels of raging and spite." Sanguine responded bluntly

"He makes up for his bad attitude with his adept level of intelligence and smarts Sanguine." Palutena reasoned,"Regardless of that, we're here."

They both approached a large set of pristine double doors. Palutena pushed both of the doors open and Sanguine couldn't help but be impressed at the beautiful decor of the room.

"Fancy isn't it?" Palutena stated whimsically," This is our most luxurious guest sleeping chamber, second only to mine!"

"Um, wow…"Sanguine began,"I don't know what to say, I really don't think I deserve a room quite as elaborate as this."

"Not at all!" Palutena exclaimed,"It's the least I can do to thank you for everything you've done for me, Pit, and my people!"

"Well, if you insist…you have my gratitude Palutena." Sanguine replied graciously

"I'll see you tomorrow…Sanguine." Palutena said coyly as she winked at him before leaving to her room.

"Mum's the word m'lady!" Sanguine responded heartily.

Sanguine slowly closed the door to his room before slumping against the door and sitting in front of it in the meditating position. He felt the cool night air drift in from the open arches at the other end of his room brush against him as he took a second glance to admire the decor that painted the walls in lavishness, the paintings, the lights, and a mural that wa-

"Okay author!" Sanguine stated as he interrupted me shamelessly,"Enough with the descriptive-ass exposition, we get it.

Sanguine eventually flopped down on top of his freakin' BED, that I would've had time to describe if he hadn't cut me off back there!

"Hey, shut up TwoFatNinjas! You were getting just as annoyed by that unnecessary description as I, and the readers were!" Sanguine yelled back

Sure fine, whatever...as I was saying, Sanguine layed there on top of the bed staring at ceiling and uncomfortably shifting position every 5 seconds.

["Having trouble getting to sleep Sanguine?"] Hexus communicated abruptly.

"Hexus," Sanguine said unenthusiastically,"...what?"

["_Boy, you sure sound pumped up bro, a REAL showstopper!_"]

"Can the bullcrap Hexus, you know better than I do on how I get during the Middle of the Night!" Sanguine expressed clearly tired from the day's events. "But somehow, I just can't sleep, I've just been...thinking I guess..."

["_Thinking huh? What about exactly?_"]

"A lot of things really, my future and life ahead of me to name a few, I mean let's be real here Hexus, I've been doing this mercenary gig for over 98,794 years and in just 1 single day I've flipped the tables, turned against my former master, threatened the lives of a whole universe, and not only that either, but my original plan was just to gather a massive army of people and throw them all directly at Proteus as a distraction, and while they all died, I would've just attempted to take him on myself, but I see now that these people have friends and lives just like me...I don't know anymore, it just seems all so...sudden." Sanguine said

**...**

"Hexus..."

["_Yeah?_"]

"Sorry, I thought I lost you there for a sec."

["_Nah...no...uh, I've just been...thinking...about everything you just said, and well...I agree. I think that the best we can hope for right now is strengthen our forces and hope to God that the author doesn't include character death in this fic._"] Hexus said

"It's not just that Hexus! It's a whole mess of other things to! I mean I'm not even 100% sure who or what exactly I'm fighting for!"

["_You're fighting to protect us fro_-"]

"PROTECT WHO?! HUH, WHO'S US?!" Sanguine yelled back

**...**

"Hexu-"

["_All of us._"]

"Huh?" Sanguine replied in confusion.

["_You're fighting to not only save everyone from Proteus, but to protect those you care about, me, Pit, Palutena, everyone else! Everyone's looking to you and me for guidance and you can bet your ass we'll deliver! Right!?_"]

"...yeah...Hell yeah!" Sanguine stated with confidence, sitting up in bed.

"You're right Hexus, I need to stop moping and shape up if I'm planning on leading these people to victory."

["_Way to pull yourself together Sanguine!_"] Hexus commended

"All this talking has got me beat,*yaaawn*...I think I can finally sleep easy now."

["Tomorrow's a new day to further our cause, don't worry Sanguine, well stop Proteus no matter what it takes!"] Hexus promised

"You said it dude..." And with that Sanguine found it for easier to sleep as he slowly drifted off into the land of dreams, soon sleep overtook his weary damaged body as Sanguine's healing factor kicked in and began repairing him.

* * *

Sanguine awoke with shock as daylight poured in through the arches into the guest room, he rolled over in bed only to fall off the side and slam his head on the dresser.

"Augh, dammit! Owww...geez, what a way to wake up." Sanguine stated sarcastically as he slowly sat up and put on his black and dark blue armored mercenary fatigues, with the IMEC logo torn off, respectively. Sanguine trudged down the staircase like a zombie, plopping down in a chair at the dining hall. Sanguine would've fallen back to sleep again if Palutena's cheery voice hadn't caught him by surprise.

"Moooorning Sanguine!" Palutena chirped as she exited the kitchen carrying a tray stacked with various foods she made.

"Wha-what's all this?" Sanguine asked in confusion.

Before Palutena could respond Pit came bursting into the dining hall.

"Oh boy! Lady Palutena made breakfast!" Pit excitedly stated in his usual enthusiastic attitude.

"Well you both are going to need to be well nourished for your team mission today." Palutena said.

Sanguine took one of the plates loaded with eggs and bacon and used his telekinesis to take a wine bottle off a rack and send it to his hand, he popped the cork and started drinking.

"You know, you really shouldn't drink so much Sanguine, It's really bad for you." Pit said in concern

"Yeah, and isn't it a little too early to start drinking anyways?" Palutena also said

"Hey, it's 5:00 somewhere,"Sanguine began,"and Pit, once you get older, you'll start to understand why some men drink and other men don't, I drink for my own personal reasons!"

Pit and Palutena both looked down in silence. Sanguine just stared at the two before taking another swig from the bottle, he then poured the rest of the contents into his flask.

Sanguine spoke up after a long silence,"Look both of you...it's not any of you two, it's me, honest." Sanguine apologized,"I mean, I just got out of bed and I haven't had my morning drink."

Pit and Palutena's spirits both perked up at the sound of that.

"Well in that case you two should be off, we'll want to convince Viridi to lend us her Forces of Nature once more! Dark Pit said that he'll stay back and guard me in case that Malus guy comes back." Palutena told the two.

"Are you kidding me?!" Sanguine exclaimed in disbelief,"Did you not see me punt the guy into the Stratosphere, I highly doubt that he'll show his face again..."

"Right!" Pit stated with confidence as he leapt up from the table and dashed towards the entrance to Palutena's Temple, equipping his bow in the process.

Sanguine got up to leave as well, equipping the gear that Hexus gave him, but before he left Palutena put a hand on his shoulder.

"Sanguine..." Palutena said softly

Sanguine turned to face her. "Yes, what is it Palutena?"

"Sanguine, when you get back from your mission, meet me in my room, I have something to show you..." Palutena said mysteriously before leaving into the foyer.

{"Ohhhhh Hot DAMN! I hope what she means is what I'm thinkin'!"} Sanguine thought excitedly before finally leaving the dining hall.

* * *

**(Palutena's Temple Front Enterance)**

**9:00 Hours / Daytime**

Sanguine stepped outside onto the front entrance to the temple and took a minute to observe his surroundings. He noticed how the nice the air felt and that the sunlight seemed to dance around the clouds gently, but ultimately they ended up reflecting UV death straight onto Sanguine's eyes.

"Ahhh, Dammit...never am going to get used to that." Sanguine said in annoyance.

He descended the staircase and onto the main landing of the flight platform, where he saw Pit talking to a Centurion Sergeant that was training recruits.

{"Palutena did say she would expand her army..."} Sanguine thought.

Eventually the Sergeant went back to yell at recruits who weren't doing the training courses correctly, leaving Pit to turn his attention to Sanguine.

"You ready to go Sanguine?" Pit asked in question.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Sanguine said while stretching his arms over his head."You need me to carry you again?"

"Not this time." Pit said,"Palutena can focus on granting me the Power of Flight now."

"Well then shall we?" Sanguine said as he took off to the skies with Pit in tow, he stopped after he was high enough."Lead the way Pit! I have no idea where Viridi's Temple is."

"Heh...well Sanguine, funny story." Pit began,"I don't exactly know where her place is either, I've only ever spoken to her."

["_Well now, looks like Sanguine needs old Hex-ees help._"] Hexus said jokingly to both heroes

"Cut the jackass attitude Hexus, not a real good time." Sanguine said with dissapointment

["_Okay fine, I had my fun. I'm sending the coordinates to your mind right now...there! Do you see it?_"]

"Uhhh...yeah there! Come on Pit. This way!" Sanguine said as both he and Pit took off east from their current position.

["_Hey Sanguine, I was doing some rooting around on the IMEC data storage last night and you won't believe what I found!_"]

"What? Please tell me it's a beer fridge!" Sanguine asked earnestly

["_Even better! Remember how Proteus made a 1,000,000 Gemini Legionaries?_"]

"Yeah, what about them?"

["Turns out Proteus gave each of our crew members total jurisdiction over 1/5 of his army!"] Hexus stated in excitement

"Wait...WHAT?!" Sanguine yelled in surprised confusion.

["Yup! That means you and I have complete control of over 200,000 troops! Plus Argus said he would help us stop Proteus as well, giving us 200,000 more soldiers! Making that a grand total of over 600,000 Gemini Legionaries in our resistance."]

"That's fantastic news!" Pit exclaimed,"Palutena said that we still have over 8,000 Centurions in our army!"

"So our odds against Proteus have now weighed more in our favor." Sanguine said,"Hopefully we can manage to convince Viridi to lend us her armies help as well..."

The two flew a little farther before finally arriving at Viridi's Temple.

* * *

**(Viridi's Temple)**

**9:13 Hours / Daytime**

Sanguine immediately noticed the lush gardens, the waterfalls, and wild animals grazing for food. He also noticed the copious amounts of pollen fluttering in his airspace.

"Geez, it's like a hippies paradise in here...wait this Viridi chick ain't no hippie is she?" Sanguine asked with genuine concern

"I don't know what a 'Hippie' is, but Viridi's...well, um...relatively nice if you get on her good side..." Pit said with apparent uncertainty. "We should go talk to her."

Both of the two walked along until they found the main floor and walked in. They found Viridi pacing the main floor in a rushed manner not even noticing any of the two. Pit spoke up first.

"Um hey...Viridi." Pit said nervously.

Viridi turned her attention to the two, shooting Sanguine a suspicious glare, but responding to Pit almost immediately.

"Pit...it's been a while hasn't it." She said nervously."Who's your...friend."

Her mood immediately turned sour at the mentioning of Sanguine. This did not deter him however, as he was used to it by now, and he struck his signature pose and evolved a sly grin as a pair of Lord Kamina style shades appeared on his face out of nowhere.

Pit simply rolled his eyes and took a few steps back as Sanguine began,"Since you so dutifully asked my fair lady...the name's Sanguine Carbide, ex-mercenary elite, bane of hippies, Hot Pocket enthusiast, and 4th wall breaker...like so, ahem HEY AUTHOR! I THINK YOU LOOK STUPID YOU HALF-ASSED LITT-"

"JUST SHUT UP!" Viridi shouted in great anger,"A simple name would've been just as appreciated without all these unnecessary theatrics and titles!"

Sanguine looked directly at her still with a sly grin."Oh I think you and I will get along just swimmingly..." Sanguine said with great sarcasm.

Viridi continued her tirade anyways,"and I don't know what a Hot Pocket is, but it sounds GROSS and UNNATURAL!"

Sanguine's grin immediately shattered like a dinner plate when he heard that. He started back at Viridi, his voice in a dangerously threatening tone,"**what did you just say about Hot Pockets...**"

Pit immediately sensed the hostility and got in between the two before any fights broke out.

"Hey now you two, calm down." Pit said attempting to diffuse the situation,"Sanguine, remember we want her to HELP us out, not try and murder us!"

Sanguine calmed down,"You're right Pit, I'm sorry." He turned his attention back to Viridi,"as much as I don't want to right now, i'm going to forgive you for what you said about...Hot Pockets." Sanguine said begrudgingly,"Because, right now this threatens the lives of you and your people."

Sanguine told Viridi about the looming danger of Proteus and Malus, and their plan to raise an armed resistance to fight back against these two foes, and ultimately asking for her part in their efforts.

"But why should I lend you my Forces of Nature, huh?" Viridi stated with disbelief," For all I know you could be lying to me..."

"**They're not lying...**" A dark, icy voice that sounded all too familiar to Pit and Sanguine rang out. All three turned their attention behind them. Before them was an inky black and shadowy puddle that splattered the ground, and Malus began rising from the puddle slowly, brandishing two long phantom rapiers in the process.

"**What they say is no lie, I have come to conquer...and destroy...and soon, you shall all join your fallen enemies in the pits of hell...**" Malus said threateningly, pointing both blades at Pit and Sanguine.

"Not if we have any say in the matter!" Pit yelled in defiance as he split Palutena's bow into its signature double blade form. Sanguine summoned up 25% of his overall max power as his body glowed a ghostly dark blue.

Both Pit and Sanguine stared down Malus, daring the other to make the first move

Malus silently cackled,"**You shall all perish here...**"**  
**

* * *

**Authors Note:**

**Well DAMN! Another fight will begin soon! It's really going down now! **

**Also for those that were wondering more about Sanguine, imagine him with Nolan North's voice for Deadpool...I feel it's the most fitting for his character.**

**Another thing! I found a theme song for Sanguine right here: ** watch?v=EjP1w3MIZsg

**See you all soon, more chapters in the near future!**

**-TwoFatNinjas**


	3. Chapter 4: Malus pulls a Halo 3

**Malus pulls a Halo** **3****:**

**Last time on Dragon Ball Z! Sanguine and Pit travelled to Viridi's Temple to relay a message, but their moment of resolve was cut short as Malus interrupt-**

"Uhhh, author? Sanguine said,"wrong fandom..."

Oops, I dun goofed! Mistakes will be made...anyways, on to the real story at hand!

Ahem, Malus continued locking eye contact with both combatants, brandishing his phantom rapiers at both of their heads in an en garde fashion, the light from Viridi's temple showering light onto his once shadowed face revealing...a mask! An ornate mask with two eye holes, (akin to Tobi's, for reference!) Sanguine noticed two deep, glowing, yet piercing purple eyes that screamed danger, and for some reason Malus felt the need to squint suspiciously at Sanguine whenever he looked directly at him, or as Sanguine noticed otherwise.

"Enough of this stalling!" Pit yelled out,"Malus! You still have yet to face judgement for your crimes against Lady Palutena and her people!"

"**The only judgement that anyone will face**,"Malus began,"**will be the blood I shall draw from your lifeless...battered...CORPSE!**"This sudden outburst from the cloaked menace had caught Viridi off guard as she was not used to hearing this fiend.

Malus began walking towards the two, slicing the two blades he held against each other in an intimidating manner. Sanguine wasted no time in reacting, realizing that Malus truly intended to kill them, and charged forward attempting to make contact with a Rasengan style blast in his hand. As the shot made contact, it exploded sending Malus crashing into a pillar at the far end of the hall, Malus layed there, unmoving, before his body poofed into a shadowy cloud of smoke.

"A fake!" Viridi exclaimed in surprise. Malus stepped out from behind a pillar and began cackling.

"**Unlike our last encounter...Sanguine! I have learned from my mistakes and thus, mastered the art of cloning!**" Malus pointed one blade directly at Sanguine,"**now this begs the true question...which one of us is the REAL Malus?**" As Malus finished that statement, many other Malus clones stepped out from behind other pillars in the hall, taking formation and each equipped with their own set of rapiers.

"I won't stand around while you torment us any longer," Viridi yelled out in defiance, grabbing the attention of the clones,"you threaten the lives of the Goddess of Nature and her people in her own temple?! UNNACCEPTABLE! Forces of Nature! Engage all clones and outsource the true enemy!"

As Viridi finished that command, hundereds of troops piled into the room and began attacking the clones who fought back with equal amounts of force.

One by one both Malus clones and Forces of Nature fell dead from battle as the clones were overwhelmed by sheer numbers, with Viridi's troops being destroyed by the clone's grit. Sanguine and Pit were also caught up in the heat of battle, as Pit was shooting and slashing at Malus clones foolish enough to engage the angel head-on, while Sanguine was blasting clones away with his MANLY energy. Sanguine kicked up his luck manipulation to tenfold levels as Malus clones began accidentally slipping up and slashing at their own ranks, or tripping and getting finished off by Viridi's soldiers.

Sanguine had enough time to observe the once peaceful hall turned warzone to see more Malus clones coming in from the doors and windows.

"Damn, he keeps making more...wait! Movie quote time...okay, ahem, THEY'RE COMING IN FROM THE DAMN WINDOWS!" Sanguine said in his usual dork-ish manner. He saw a lone Malus standing near one of the pillars and waving his hands around in a mystical fashion while clones started materializing around him and charging into battle.

"That one's probably the real one." Sanguine stated as he took off sneaking away and getting closer to the true Malus. As Pit was fighting off the clones he noticed that Sanguine had suddenly disappeared.

"VIRIDI!" Pit yelled trying to nab her attention, he noticed she was being guarded by her troops that were keeping any clones from getting too close.

"WHAT IS IT PIT?!" Viridi yelled back equally as loud as she was trying to be heard over the commotion of battle.

"DID YOU SEE WHERE SANGUINE WENT?! I DONT SEE HIM ANYWHERE?!" Pit yelled trying to look for him, but at the same time fighting back against the clones.

"WHO CARES?! JUST KEEP FIGHTING!" Viridi yelled in reply, her all to familiar attitude returning.

However, unbeknownst to the two, Sanguine just about had the jump on Malus.

"HEY JACKASS!" Sanguine yelled rearing up an energized punch. Malus turned around, a look of surprise crossing his masked face.

"**Wha-**" was all Malus was able to get out before Sanguine's punch caused his face to seemingly fold over his fist with the amount of force behind it, as Malus went flying he face-planted the floor with great impact. Malus slowly got up, baring his teeth before facing Sanguine.

Sanguine held his traditional cocky smirk as he looked back at Malus.

"If there's one mistake you haven't learned from, Malus, it's that you leave too many blind spots open when you concentrate on your little tricks." Sanguine said relishing, at that moment he noticed that Malus' mask had multiple cracks in it from his punch, a piece even fell off revealing Malus' jaw. He noticed he had snake like teeth with chalk-white skin.

{"So Malus was secretly Voldemort all along..."} Sanguine thought humorously,{"I should've known!"}

"**ENOUGH!**" Malus yelled at the top of his lungs, raising his arms up in the air causing all the Malus clones to immediately stop and collapse onto the ground as they all bursted into inky-black smoke that returned to every opening of Malus' cloak.

Viridi's Forces of Nature remained in their formation, willing to lay down their lives for their queen if need be.

Malus however, was seething with anger,"**If you want something done right...**" Malus began saying through clenched teeth,"** then you have to do it yourself...**"

"Enough of this nonsense! Forces of Nature! Seize the intruder!" Viridi ordered. Her remaining forces charged at Malus head-on.

"**FOOLS!**" Malus yelled back as he threw many black kunai at Viridi's troops that lodged themselves into the back of each and everyone of the soldier's necks. The Forces of Nature all collapsed onto the ground, but slowly they started to rise up again as glowing purple strands of psychic energy came out from the back of the kunai and went to the ends of Malus' fingers, much like a puppeteer.

"Oh shhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-" Sanguine said as he started backing up.

"Not a good time Sanguine!" Pit said back

All three noticed that Viridi's former Forces of Nature had deep, skull-like, hollowed out black eyes with tiny, glowing, purple pupils. They began taking formation against the three combatants, with Malus directing every movement of Viridi's soldiers by waving his hands around in swift fluid motions.

"Forces of Nature! What're you doing?!" Viridi began yelling," I said seize the intruder!"

"**I'm afraid that you'll find your soldiers...much more resilient to your pitiful** **demands. Forces of Nature!" **Malus said in a mocking tone,"**KILL...him.**" He pointed at Sanguine**  
**

"Wait, ME?! Sanguine exclaimed in surprise pointing at himself.

"Not if I can help it!" Pit yelled as he fought the now brainwashed Forces of Nature.

Sanguine simply looked down, before slowly squinting his eyes in rage, his eyes turning from their normal purple, into a glowing blood red.

"Pit...get down," Sanguine ordered, his voice sounding darker than it usually was.

"I can't! there's too many enemies!" Pit tried reasoning.

"I SAID GET DOWN **NOW**!" Sanguine screamed out. Pit immediately dropped to the floor, surprised by Sanguine's change of attitude. Sanguine sent a dark red energy wave at the Puppets of Nature, causing all of them to fly back and slam into Malus who was also sent into the wall. This interrupted his connection and caused the psychic strands of energy to dissipate. The Puppets of Nature all collapsed to the ground, and Viridi breathed a sigh of relief to see her troops not under Malus' control.

But of course, Malus being the VILLAN...had to ruin the moment by using his telekinesis to yank out all the kunai from the soldiers necks, which in turn caused the fallen Forces of Nature to explode violently. Viridi gasped, knowing what this truly meant.

"**That's right.**" Malus said noticing Viridi's understanding,"**anyone under my control through these kunai will immediately...die when they're removed.**"

"You're a monster," Viridi said as she started tearing up at the sight of her "children" massacred at the hands of Malus.

"**Call me what you will, but one fact still reigns true**," Malus said,"**I am the one true God...and I have come to wipe the slate clean...**"

Malus pointed a finger at Pit, firing a thin purple beam at his head, which knocked him unconscious on contact. He did the same to Viridi, then turned his attention to the now raging Sanguine, who was cloaked in a blood red aura as his eyes glowed fiery death, eyes that could pierce your soul thousands of times over and make you hate yourself for angering that man.

"**Now that those two are out of the way, let's finish what we started sha-**" Malus' statement was cut short as Sanguine warped directly in front of him and punched him in his abdomen with such great magnitude, one could almost see his fist come out the other side. Malus coughed up lots of blood, stumbling back and struggling to regain his footing. Before Malus could retaliate, Sanguine yanked him off the ground from the collar of his cloak and began laying into him.

"NOTHING'S FINISHED YOU SADISTIC SON OF A BITCH! YOU WALTZ IN HERE CLAIMING YOUR SOME GOD, AND THEN THREATEN THE LIVES OF ME AND MY FRIENDS!? WHY ARE YOU SO GODDAMNED OBSESSED WITH ME ANYWAYS YOU SOCIOPATHIC CIRCUS FREAK!" Sanguine screamed at Malus with great force.

"**It's not that I'm obsessed, it's that I despise you, your friends, and this godforsaken universe!**" Malus replied in pain.

Sanguine slammed his forehead into Malus' mask, causing it to shatter into pieces as the shards cluttered to the floor.

"**NO!**" Malus yelled as he shoved Sanguine back with enough force to launch him into Viridi's throne, however Sanguine quickly stood up unscathed and glared Malus down, baring his teeth in the process. When Sanguine looked at the unmasked Malus he noticed that he was covering his face with one hand, but regardless, Sanguine could still see spools of black hair come out from between his fingers as he tried his best to mask his true identity.

"**I guess this will have to wait until next time**,"Malus began,"**but Sanguine, know that one day you and I will fight...I will win...and I will let you watch as I slaughter your friends one by one.**"

Before Sanguine could do any more damage to him, Malus quickly melted back into his shadowy ink puddle that quickly dissipated.

Sanguine stood there dry heaving in absolute rage as he quickly destroyed a pillar with no effort while letting out a MANLY roar.

Sanguine sat on the ground in a meditating position to let himself calm down before doing anything irrational. After what felt like 12 minutes, Sanguine slowly stood up and looked at both Pit and Viridi as they still lied unconscious, he took a swig of beer from the flask he had on him. He then walked over and picked up both of their bodies, hoisting each against his shoulders fireman carry style.

["_I saw that outburst you had back there, and well...I'm going to study in on it more, but I did notice your exo-suit start to overheat more the angrier you got..._"] Hexus started up in Sanguine's mind once more.

"Cool beans," Sanguine said as he began flying back to Palutena's Temple, still carrying the two with him."I'm gonna try to get these guys back to Palutena as fast as possible, they seem pretty battered."

["_I've already contacted her, and told her about Pit and Viridi's conditions, she should have a sick bay on staff!_"] Hexus said proudly, relishing in his work

"Ya know Hexus,"Sanguine began,"I don't know if I've said this a lot about you, but you really work pretty freakin' fast sometimes!"

["_Again with the flattery bro..._"] Hexus said in embarrassment

* * *

**(Palutena's Temple)**

**9:38 Hours / Daytime**

As Sanguine touched down on the landing platform he saw some centurion medics waiting for him. He gave them both Pit and Viridi.

"Captain!" one centurion said in surprise. "and Mistress Viridi!" Another yelled out.

"What happened to them?" A centurion medic asked Sanguine.

"They were both injured in battle." Sanguine responded.

"Oh I see..." The centurion doctor said before the two were loaded onto stretchers and carried off.

"Listen, I want you to take good care of them." Sanguine yelled after the medics.

"We will don't worry." One of the doctors replied as he and the rest of them left.

Sanguine had some time to stop and take a swig from his flask as he attempted to collect his thoughts,what happened over the day, why Malus was so dedicated to opposing him, that is until a familiar voice pierced his thinking space.

"Sanguine you have returned, your friend Hexus told me that Pit and Viridi were badly wounded...what...happened?" Palutena said with worry, her mood turning from her usual happy disposition to one of concern in mere seconds.

"Malus decided to show his mug at the worst possible time, and the bull ended up rearing his horns...again" Sanguine replied.

"Malus attacked again?" Palutena asked Sanguine.

"Not only attack, but the smarmy little prick sent an army of clones at us in droves...so a bit of an overkill really." Sanguine said back

"I see..." Palutena began,"thank you for getting Pit and Viridi out of there anyways! Honestly, I'm not sure what I would've done without you."

Sanguine put a hand on Palutena's shoulder,"Palutena, listen, I'll do whatever I can to help you out, honestly, I'm here to save all of you from any danger Proteus brings, but I'm also here for you."

Sanguine looked at Palutena, and she looked back, now really noticing just how much she liked his purple eyes. Sanguine however was the first to break this silence.

"You said there was something that you wanted to show me?" Sanguine asked

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot about that, thank's for reming me!" Palutena exclaimed

"Hey, anytime." Sanguine said back.

* * *

**(Palutena's Sleeping Chamber)**

{"Ohhhh, here we go..."} Sanguine thought

"What I wanted to show you is right in here..." Palutena said approaching her closet.

{Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy!}

Palutena opened the closet and stopped. "No one's gotten the privilege of seeing this before."

{Here we go! I've been waiting for this!}

"What I wanted to show you was..."

{OUT WITH IT WOMAN!}

"A cherished blade I've kept secretly hidden away from all of Skyworld for many millennia!" Palutena said, out of breath.

{YEEEEESSSSS I'VE BE-wait...WHAT?! A BLADE?! Aw, F*ck you TwoFatNinjas! You know that I've wanted this for a LONG time!}

Yeah, well maybe if you stopped treating me like that whenever I did stuff like this I would reward you, but for right now it looks like somebody needs a wittle time-out...

Sanguine then proceeded to flip me the bird while I was in the middle of writing his freakin' story, but I digress, anyways Sanguine turned his attention to Palutena, who beckoned him to follow her, she turned a few knobs in her closet, which caused a secret door to unlock in the back of the closet.

As Palutena and Sanguine made their way down the staircase in the room Palutena began explaining the legend behind the blade, Sanguine tuned out though...he only remembered bits and pieces for when he was listening, like how it was millions of years old, that it could permanently kill gods, slice through virtually anything, yadda, yadda, yadda... he was sure Hexus was listening and would remember it by the time they got talking once more, because Hexus LOVES cryptic tales and prophecies.

As they approached the altar where the blade was held, Sanguine took another swig from his flask, Palutena noticed this and highlighted on it.

"You know during breakfast, you never told us why you actually drink, I mean you don't have to say anything if you don't want to..." Palutena approached the subject cautiously

"I didn't tell you guys because I didn't want to crush Pit's spirits, but if you really want to know, I always ... drank ... to forget..." Sanguine said distantly

"...Forget what?..." Palutena asked

"A lot of things really ... people I've killed ... things in my past that I regret doing ... but most importantly, it was my wife."

"Your wife?" Palutena asked, confused.

"Yeah, Proteus killed my wife in front of my own eyes ... it was another piece of why I defected from IMEC, but the whole ordeal had caused me to become partially insane ... so one second i'm like this ... having deep, intricate conversations on an emotional level and really connecting with others as a normal person, and then the next second I'm off, jumping around like a crazed madman, breaking the 4th wall far more than I do, making obscure references, or spouting off about my religious devotion to Hot Pockets. I mean, I don't even like them that much." Sanguine confessed in a depressed manner.

"Wow ... I didn't know you had it so...rough." Palutena stated with great pity lining her voice

"It's not all bad, I mean I always found it easier to talk to you, or share personal stories like this with you because, well ... you remind me a lot of wife...happy disposition, a real "Can do" attitude, a wonderful personality, extravagant looks, and the same beautiful green hair, it all ties together well, ya know." Sanguine said akwardly while rubbing the back of his head.

"Do you really think all that about me?..." Palutena said softly, feeling touched by Sanguine's words.

"Well, yeah...I really do, everything about you really lives tru-" Sanguine was cut off as Palutena brought him into a kiss which, respectively, surprised the LIVING HELL out of Sanguine and ME! I mean, I'll be real here for a sec, I wasn't even planning on doing an OCxPalutena arc at all for this fic, but then I'm all like, nah! Screw it! Sanguine needs love! So I gave it to him, just like that. You hear that! I WROTE in into MY STORY! I can just do that! I am KING in here!...Understand?!

"Yes yes TwoFatNinjas, we all get it! You take your tirades and take em' with you out the door, cause people came here for a fic, not your incessant ramblings! Okay?!" Sanguine yelled

But-

"No buts! You lost your privilege to but after you thought it was a good idea to speak to the audience yourself, and not through the characters either, in the middle of the chapter!" Sanguine said with no sign of letting up.

As Sanguine finished his kiss from Palutena, he approached the alter and took the blade, by its handle, out of it's pedestal holding it up in the air as holy light gleaned from it.

Dah, dah, dah, DAHHHHHHH! You have acquired the Master Swor-

"Nah uh, no, nope, not again! Not a second time author! For God's sake Ninjas what're doing with your life that you feel the need to shamelessly include a crappy Zelda cameo, and cop a reference feel on the audience? It just ain't fair buddy." Sanguine said in utter disappointment."Come on Palutena, let's bounce before the author puts in a fricken' Mario plug-in...

"Well what should we do now?" Palutena asked as they ascended the staircase together.

"We could go see how Pit and Viridi are doing in the Infirmary?" Sanguine suggested

"Speaking of Pit, never tell him about our kiss, I mean it."

"Oh believe me, mum's the word m'lady..."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Hey guys another chapter is up, and yes, as I shamelessly plugged it in mid chapter, Sanguine x Palutena is officially a thing in my story now, don't expect it to interfere with the progression of the story, because it won't! So rest easy knowing that future chapters won't revolve around ... love ... **

**Also, big shoutout to That One Mudkip for his inspiring and thoughtful reviews that have kept me chuggin' away at this story, so if your reading this Mudkip, I think you're an awesome person! :D**

**See you all in the next chapter!**

**-TwoFatNinjas**


	4. Chapter 5: Doppelgängers Unite!

**Doppelgängers Unite!:**

**(Palutena's Temple)**

**[Medical Bay]**

**10:00 Hours**

Sanguine and Palutena were both standing in the medical bay observing the unconscious figures of Pit and Viridi, they also saw many doctors and medics working feverishly for a solution to their predicament.

"What are we going to do about this?" Palutena said quietly in concerned frustration.

"I'm not sure." Sanguine replied, crossing his arms and closing his eyes, attempting to think of a solution, when suddenly Hexus' voice flooded both Sanguine and Palutena's headspace.

["_I think I have an answer._"]

"You know how to fix this?" Palutena said with hope.

"He's Hexus, the guys always got solutions for everything..." Sanguine replied with his trademark smirk.

["_That's why I was the teams top tactician!"] Hexus continued, ["Anyways, unlucky for Malus, I've seen that type of knockout spell before. The cure for it is magmatized smelling-salts._"]

"Ooooookay then, I can just pick those right up after finding the Holy Grail and maybe slaying Satan with a magic Unicorn horn!" Sanguine said with heavy emphasis on his sarcasm.

["_Shut up man, they're not that hard to find, the real problem is WHERE to find them._"] Hexus said perplexed

Palutena was the first to speak up,"I know where to find them!"

["_Really where at?_"] Hexus asked

"I know there's some all the way back at...Viridi's temple, oh darn! You were just there." Palutena said in regards to Sanguine.

"I know, but none of us had any idea something like this would happen." Sanguine responded in reassurance. "Don't worry though, I'll go get them."

Sanguine turned to go, but was called after by Palutena before leaving the infirmary.

"Hold on Sanguine, before you go I just wanted to let you know that Viridi always said that the salts were in her temple's infirmary. Also..." Palutena hesitated,"I-I...be safe!"

Sanguine smiled at her,"Don't worry about it, you know I will." Sanguine left to the landing dock of Palutena's temple.

* * *

**(Palutena's Temple)**

**[Landing Dock]**

Sanguine stepped out onto the edge of the takeoff platform, he leapt into the sky and sped toward Viridi's Temple at lightning fast speeds, he touched down in no time and made his way to the temple infirmary. Along the way, Sanguine quickly ducked behind a pillar in the main hall, where he fought Malus, when he heard voices. Sanguine peeked out from behind the pillar and saw Underworld grunts with black masks interrogating a girl tied to a chair.

"I'M NOT GONNA SAY IT AGAIN, TELL US WHERE THE WISH SEED IS!" One of them yelled at the girl.

"I don't know! Please just let me go! She yelled through bitter tears.

The Underworld grunt slapped her across the face and went to speak with the other grunt that was present. Sanguine observed the girl being interrogated and noticed that she couldn't be more than 17, had yellow hair with red tips, and a lightning blue scarf which was splattered with her own blood. He saw that she had cuts and bruises all over her and was crying. Sanguine bared his teeth and clenched his fists with anger at the sight.

"Little bastards." Sanguine said under his breath. He noted that there were three grunts in the room, with one close by him! Sanguine utilized his stealth training to stick to the shadows, and sneak up on the third grunt closest to the door. He quickly got behind him, wrapped his hands around his head, and snapped his neck. Sanguine dragged the body into the shadows before anyone of the room's current party noticed him. He put his hand on the grunt's face and a low red energy began coursing from the grunts face into Sanguine's hand.

* * *

(Note: Sanguine can absorb defeated enemies power to make himself stronger.)

* * *

The grunt disintegrated into ashes and Sanguine continued to hug the walls, attempting to get closer to the remaining grunts. One of them finished talking with the other and went back to the girl who was struggling to get out of her bindings. He whipped out a black knife.

"If you're not going to cooperate properly, then I think we're going to have to change our methods drastically." The Underworld grunt said with malice as he inched the blade closer to the girl's neck, before he could do any damage, a gunshot rang out in the room. The grunt turned to see that his buddy had been shot in the head and was laid out on the floor.

"Yo! What's up?!" The grunt swiftly, yet angrily turned to the source of the voice and met eye-to-eye with a highly unamused ex-mercenary holding a black .50 caliber rifle with fresh smoke pooling out of the barrel. The grunt wasted no time and quickly sent the blade slashing at the restrained girl, his action was stopped dead in its tracks however, when a black chain with a dark-blue aura caught his wrist and kept it from moving, he looked back at Sanguine who twisted the chain on his wrist, causing the grunt to let go of the knife. The grunt responded by using his free hand to take out his holstered 9mm and point it at Sanguine, however when he brought his attention back to the mercenary, he was gone! He searched around for the intruder before feeling a light tap on his shoulder, the grunt turned around and saw Sanguine staring into his soul, he let out a surprised yell and attempted to fire his weapon, but Sanguine was faster and he uppercutted his foe's trachea which sent him flying into a wall, the grunt slid down the wall and slumped down onto the floor, dead.

Sanguine turned his attention to the distressed teen who was still bound to the chair by its metal cuffs. Sanguine began walking towards her, she on the other hand was staring at him with apparent fear, clearly shell-shocked by the current ordeal, she closed her eyes as Sanguine was right next to her, waiting for the cruel jaws of death to clamp down on her. This did not happen though, because she opened her eyes to see Sanguine breaking off her restraints, she looked at him like a scared puppy, and he looked back.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you, I'll get you out of her as fast as possible." Sanguine said with his calm composure."Do you need any help getting up?"

"No." The girl said wiping her tears away and calming down as she stood up slowly from the chair. "Who are you?"

Sanguine took his stance and re-fixed his sly grin as he began once more,"I...am Sanguine Carbide, ex-head hunter, counter-pick to injustice, a billionaire playboy philanthropist, and MLG winner of 3 tournaments! 2 in which I cheated!"

The girl stared at Sanguine in confusion before responding herself,"Well, anyways...I am Phosphora, lead commander of Lady Viridi's Forces of Nature."

"Cool." Sanguine said,"Uh, what even happened here? Care explaining?"

"Well, I was making my usual rounds of patrol in the area, and at about 9:41 or so, I came back report to Lady Viridi my findings, but when I got back this cloaked man with two swords was here-

"Malus..." Sanguine gritted quietly.

"And all these Underworld grunts that had invaded the temple, Lady Viridi was nowhere to be found, so in my anger I engaged the hooded man, but he quickly knocked me out and I woke up tied to that chair and was being tortured about the whereabouts of The Wish Seed, honestly I don't even know where it's located, just that it is being guarded by the Pheonix." Phosphora explained

"I see..." Sanguine said as he approached and knelt beside the second dead grunt,"well Viridi and Pit were both knocked out by the cloaked man, he calls himself Malus by the way."

"Lady Viridi...knocked out." Phosphora said in disbelief,"I failed at my one job, to protect her with my life."

"Hey it's fine," Sanguine reassured,"It happened to Pit as well, and besides they're both holed up in Palutena's Infirmary as we speak, safe and sound, I've been sent here to find some magmatized smelling-salts to resuscitate the two." Sanguine put his hand on the dead grunt's face, absorbing his power.

"What's that you're doing?" Phosphora asked with curiosity.

"I can absorb the life energy of dead people to become more powerful." Sanguine responded without hesitation. He approached the leader of the grunt party and began absorbing his power as well, in the middle of doing so, Sanguine glanced over and saw the troop's dropped 9mm pistol. Sanguine finished absorbing and picked up the gun, studying it.

"Weird," Sanguine said,"Hey Phoshpora."

"Yes Sanguine?"

"Does anyone in Skyworld use this?" He said beckoning at the pistol in his hand.

"No...I've never seen anything like that before, it's like...some kind of foreign handheld cannon." Phosphora observed the gun, confused by it.

"It's called a gun." Sanguine corrected,"What confuses me is how any of these guys could get a hold of one, more or less even know how to use it."

Sanguine continued to study the pistol, he noticed an engraving on the side of the gun. As Sanguine studied the engraving he saw that it was the familiar IMEC logo. Sanguine dropped the gun on the floor.

"What the hell..." Sanguine sputtered in shock. He couldn't believe this, why would Malus' men be using guns from HIS old mercenary core? Sanguine put his questions aside, he had a job to complete. Sanguine holstered the pistol, got up and turned toward the infirmary door.

"I need to head to the infirmary and find the smelling-salts anyways, I'll see you 'round."

"Ohh no you don't!" Phosphora interjected,"I don't know about you, but I have my own personal vendetta against this Malus guy and his men for harming my Lady and her people, besides the smelling-salts are rare materials and are kept locked away, only Lady Viridi and I can access them."

*Sigh* ... "Fine, you can help me, but don't expect me to babysit you!" Sanguine replied

"Believe me, I can handle myself." Phosphora said with a smile, her usual snarky attitude returning.

The two of them traveled to the infirmary together, Sanguine insisted they both stick to stealth as to not draw attention to themselves. Sanguine killed any grunts in their way and took their power, eventually they made it to the infirmary. When they both stepped through the door they saw Malus, a few Underworld remnants, and The Mirror of Truth?!

"YOU!" Sanguine said

"**ME!**" Malus responded,"**Back for more I see? Well you came at a bad time. You see I fixed The Mirror of Truth, and I have just been so busy creating MORE and MORE soldiers for my army to KILL you, and there is NOTHING you can do to stop it...nothing, nothing at all.**"

Malus was obviously baiting Sanguine into smashing the mirror as to create his own loyal copy to serve him, but Sanguine already knew what the mirror could do based on Palutena's description. Sanguine decided to counter-bait Malus by charging at the mirror, a dark-blue flaming punch at the ready, before the fist made contact with the mirror, Sanguine turned the punch to hit Malus directly in his new mask. Malus reacted almost instantly, dodging and grabbing Sanguine's arm, Malis then redirected Sanguine's momentum, causing him to be thrown into, and shatter, the mirror.

"NO!" Sanguine yelled

"**YES!**" Malus yelled back in triumph

As Sanguine landed on the floor, his doppelgänger also landed on the floor, opposite from him and in the same fashion. Both Sanguine and his evil counterpart rose from the floor staring each other down. Sanguine saw that he looked just like him, except that he was more pale, had red streaks in his black hair, blood-red eyes instead of Sanguine's purple, he also had Sanguine's eye scar over his left eye rather than the right, and had a blood-red and black mercenary Exo-suit instead of Sanguine's dark-blue and black, also his suit had the IMEC logo scratched off, but it was in reverse so it said CEMI.

Malus laughed hysterically, like a retarded hyena,"**AHA HA HA HA HAAA HA HA HA! I WIN! YOU LOSE! HA HA HAAAA! NOW MY LOYAL PET! I ORDER YOU TO KILL YOUR COPY! Men, we're done with our mission at hand, let's move out**!" With that, Malus and his grunts filed out the door and escaped the temple. However, Sanguine and Phosphora were left with Sanguine's opposite to deal with.

"Great now Malus has another you on his side." Phosphora said

"Actually." The evil Sanguine began,"You shattered the mirror before the process could be completed, thus I have no inferior serving complex, I serve under no one baby! I'm my own free spirit, I'm a lone wolf, I hunt alone, I eat alone, end of story."

"So Evil Sanguine-" Phosphora began

"Evil Sanguine sounds gay, I'll take Dark Sanguine for 400 Trebek." Dark Sanguine responded.

"He has my sense of humor AND tendency to break the 4th wall, just like me...*sniff* My son!" Sanguine cried out

"I'm you dumbass, of course I'm just like you." Dark Sanguine responded unamused

"Doppelgänger huh," Sanguine began," all you need is the eyepatch and the goatee..."

"The eyepatch is right here," Dark Sanguine said as he strapped an eyepatch over his left eye scar."But I really should grow a goatee, sounds sexy."

"As I was saying," Phosphora continued,"If you don't serve Malus,then you won't kill us on his order?"

"No, I'll still kill you, it's just that I won't do it because Malus told me to." Dark Sanguine said in reply. Dark Sanguine dashed at Sanguine and jabbed two fingers charged with bright red lightning into his gut, Sanguine flew back into a bookcase at shattered it on impact. As Sanguine got up he saw that Dark Sanguine's attention was focused on Phosphora as the two were engaged in a "Lightning Battle" ... Ha, see what I did there?!

Anyways, Sanguine found that he could sneak up and get the drop on DS if he acted fast, he vanished and appeared behind Dark Sanguine, attempting to hit him with a fiery fist, Dark Sanguine was faster and stabbed Sanguine in the neck with an energized lightning blade, Sanguine's eyes went white as he exploded, clouding DS' vision.

"What the?! A copy!" Dark Sanguine said in surprise

"Not just any copy!" Sanguine's voice rang out in the thick smoke,"AN EXPLOSIVE COPY MADE OF FIRE! The smoke cleared enough for Dark Sanguine to see Sanguine knee him in the stomach with a fire-charged knee, Dark Sanguine retaliated by punching Sanguine in the face with his own lightning charged fist the very second Sanguine kneed him. Both combatants were locked together like a violent statue before collapsing onto the floor, end of Rocky 3 style. Both were breathing heavy as they struggled to get up.

"Wait!" Sanguine said,"If you kill me, you'll die to!"

"What the hell are you going on about now, faker?! Dark Sanguine said in disbelief

"Look." Sanguine responded. He threw an apple at one of the mirror shards, a black apple coming from the other side. Sanguine proceeded to set the original red apple on fire, after it burnt into ash, the black apple exploded like a grenade.

"Wow...um, wasn't expecting this to happen." Dark Sanguine responded, clearly surprised.

"In that case," He began," I won't kill you, but that doesn't mean I'll still like you, 'cause...I hate you, like, a lot."

Dark Sanguine took a smoke grenade off of his own utility belt and threw it on the ground, as it exploded he quickly escaped from the two.

"You may or may not see me again! FAKER!" Dark Sanguine yelled as his voice grew more and more distant the further he got.

"Well, that happened." Sanguine said,"Right Phosphora?...Phosphora?"

"Right here!" Phosphora said as she returned to Sanguine, her cuts and bruises patched up by bandages, and adhesives.

"You got yourself fixed up!" Sanguine noticed

"Aaaaaand..." Phosphora added as she held up glowing-red pebbles.

"The Magma salts!" Sanguine exclaimed,"Good, let's go then. We should get back to the others as fast as possible!"

"Right!" Phosphora said

The two took off down the temple's corridor, emerging into Viridi's front garden in seconds. They both flew up into the air and dashed towards Palutena's Temple, making it there in no time.

* * *

**(Palutena's Temple)**

**[Infirmary]**

**16:00 Hours / Evening**

Sanguine and Phosphora both ran into the sick bay's waiting room where Palutena was calmly sitting and reading a book, she looked up when the two ran in and noticed the change in members of party.

"Commander Phosphora?" Palutena stated,"what're you doing her, and why are you so damaged?"

Sanguine chimed in breathlessly,"Long story...explain later...here's Salts..." Sanguine handed the salts to Palutena, who in turn, handed the salts to a present medic. The medic prepared the salts and brushed them under Pit's and Viridi's noses. The two both slowly woke and rose up, Pit happy to see Palutena and Sanguine, and Viridi annoyed by the two's presence. She was however relieved to see her best commander there on site.

Phosphora immediately ran over and hugged Viridi as she began bawling into her shoulder,"OH MISTRESS VIRIDI! I'M SO SORRY I WASN'T THERE TO SAVE YOU WHEN YOU WERE ATTACKED! I'M THE WORST GENERAL EVER AND I DESER-"

Phosphora was cut off from her cry-fest as Viridi smacked her across the face.

"Pull yourself together commander! I can't have my top general break down over something as insignificant as this!" Viridi yelled as she attempted to knock some sense back into Phosphora.

"What happened over there Sanguine?" Palutena asked with concern.

"Alright! Everyone back into the dining hall!" Sanguine yelled over the group,"Looks like I have some more explaining, and more eating to do."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**And now Phosphora and Dark Sanguine join the mix! MORE PLOT!**

**Anyways, thanks to all of you who follow/favorite my story, it means a lot to a guy just starting out on this site.**

**Leave a review If you can! positive is enjoyed, Constructive criticism is also appreciated, negativity is not enjoyed though, soooo yeah.**

**-TwoFatNinjas**


	5. Chapter 6: Insane Clown Posse

**Insane Clown Posse:**

**(Palutena's Dining Hall)**

**17:00 Hours / Evening**

Sanguine was in a splay of deja vu as everyone was sitting along the long ends of the dining table watching Sanguine as he chowed down on more various meats, except Viridi, who raised hell about, and stepped out of the room to avert Sanguine spoiling nature...something like that, I dunno?...Anyways, Sanguine finished his meal and Phosphora convinced Viridi to come back in. After all was situated, Sanguine explained the situation at hand and what transpired at Viridi's Temple, him rescuing Phosphora, finding Malus, and of course, shattering the Mirror of Truth and thus creating a doppelgänger.

"So now there's another mirror counterpart lurking god knows where?" Viridi asked, annoyed by the whole situation as usual.

"Who cares, I know I don't, besides the guy is an EVIL counterpart, he'll most likely try and kill us." Dark Pit retorted in equal annoyance.

"We can't just assume something like that Dark Pit! He's unfinished just like you, he could be good!" Viridi yelled back louder. Dark Pit took the bait and escalated the shouting match between the two.

"What's THAT supposed to mean huh! I'm unfinished!?" Dark Pit yelled back standing up.

"Honestly, if you're going to have a dick fighting competition with a woman, you must've started out with the world's worst handicap..." A snarky, yet sinister voice rang out. Everyone fell silent and turned their attention to the dining room's entrance as Dark Sanguine strolled right on into the room and stood there, crossing his arms. After a while he spoke up.

"As our forefather George Lopez put it, WATCHAAA!" Dark Sanguine stated as he struck a pose and took a seat at the dining hall.

**[Sexy Beast Dark Sanguine]**

"Dark Sanguine!" Phosphora said in surprise,"what are you doing here?"

"I've been thinking it over for a while," Dark Sanguine began,"Malus and this Proteus dude are fixed to kill us all, including Sanguine, meaning I'll die in the process, and I love me so much, so as much as it hurts my soul to say this...I'll h-h...h-h-hel...helll-"

"Help us?" Palutena finished.

"Yeah sure whatever." Dark Sanguine said.

"Well Jolly- frickin' -Ranchers,"Sanguine said,"anyone else want to make a surprise entrance?!"

["_Actually yes._"] Hexus said,["_I'm positive that Proteus is catching onto us, so I've rigged all 3 of our transporters to blow, and me and Argus are comin' in hot!_"]

"What ar-" Sanguine's statement was cut off as a dimensional tear was ripped into the airspace of the dining hall and Hexus and Argus both stepped through with gurneys loaded with Hexus' equipment. Hexus whipped out a C4 detonator and flicked the switch, an audible BOOM could be heard through the rift as the tear sealed shut.

"And that's all she wrote." Hexus said. "Well, me and Argus have arrived and our armed forces will strengthen tenfold thanks to all the equipment we've brought." Hexus pushed back his short and silvery-white hair, and adjusted his glasses.

**[IMEC Elite Hexus]**

**[IMEC Elite Argus]**

"That's not all!" Pit also said,"I also invited an old friend."

"Right here." A disgruntled and masculine voice said as Magnus walked through the arch, big-ass sword in hand.

**[Top Swordsman of the Human-Race Magnus]**

"Okay..." Sanguine paused,"Anyone...else?"

"DON'T FORGET ABOUT ME SONNY!" An old, yet eccentric voice yelled.

"Aw goddammit!" Sanguine yelled in annoyance. Dyntos ran in as fast as his old legs could carry him and took a seat at the table with Magnus, Hexus, and Argus.

**[God of the Forge Dyntos]**

Dark Sanguine stood up and took a head count of the table members,"Great so now that the Insane Clown Posse has all it's members present, we can strategize." He said.

"I'll start! So after I left Viridi's temple, I took the liberty to track down and spy on Malus and his cronies. Turns out they were at your temple to raid all your, what're they called?... Oh yeah, Reset Bombs!" Dark Sanguine informed.

"THEY STOLE MY RESET BOMBS?!" Viridi yelled out in surprise.

"Every last one of them...from the conversation I overheard while spying on him, he plans to nuke ALL of our temples, Skyworld, and Angel Land." Dark Sanguine elaborated.

"We have to stop him!" Pit said

"No shit Sherlock, that's the plan." Dark Sanguine replied with disinterest."I've already pinpointed his location and I'm all ready to go."

"I'll go as well," Sanguine said, standing up."Malus needs to be stopped NOW so that we can deal with Proteus separately."

"I'll keep tabs on your guy's progress." Hexus said, whipping out his computer.

Sanguine and Dark Sanguine both left the dining hall to let everyone else discuss their current predicament.

* * *

Sanguine and DS both took off from the platform of the temple and Dark Sanguine signaled to his counter-part the proper direction. As they were both flying the two came across a raging volcano, the ash clouds were heavy, and the soot and fire hung low.

["Sanguine, remember when you went into that rage induced spell on Malus?"] Hexus said through their telecommunication.

"Yeah, you got any data on it?" Sanguine said back.

["Precisely, turns out your emotions are intertwined with your overall power, and your rage was great enough that it overheated your Exo-suit. Try not to overheat it next time though, you remember what happens if the suit gets destroyed...don't you?"] Hexus said.

"Yeah yeah, I know." Sanguine said back

"What happens if you break your suit?" Dark Sanguine said.

"Oh that, well me and my team are created beings of pure, unrestricted, and destructive energy. The power is too great for most of us to handle, so these Exo-suits inhibit and restrain our true power, if we break the suit then our power is unleashed in this destructive power craze, the energy expenditure from the craze is greater than our bodies can handle, so eventually our bodies will give out and we'll die. Not a fun way to go out if you ask me." Sanguine explained.

"Sounds awesome." Dark Sanguine said bluntly, unfazed by the description.

"Believe me," Sanguine said,"It does not sound awesome." The two came up on the summit of the blazing volcano and touched down, Sanguine took hold of his surroundings and saw that Malus was standing over a dead Pheonix with his Underworld soldiers scattered around also dead, when Sanguine looked back at Malus to see him with a glowing seed and two other cloaked figures that were present.

"Malus! Your tyranny ends now! Or...something, I'm not used to doing heroic entrance quotes." Sanguine stated in embarrassment. Dark Sanguine facepalmed, hard.

"**Oh really now, a shame it is, I was just about to make my wish...**" Malus replied, he held up the seed and it glowed brighter.

"Malus NO!" Sanguine yelled while dashing at Malus, the two other cloaked figures appeared in front of Malus and forced Sanguine back, saying nothing.

"**Too late!**" Malus yelled,"**I WISH TO BRING THE IMEC BASE TO SKYWORLD!**"

As Malus finished that statement, a blinding flash filled the airspace as the entire IMEC Mercenary HQ hovered over the volcano.

Sanguine stared at the base and at Malus in utter disbelief. Malus began laughing hysterically, he moved his hands and removed his hood, his mask obscuring his face.

"**So much for your rebellion, TRAITOR!**" Malus yelled as he flung his mask off to reveal himself as...

**... Proteus ...**

Sanguine's eyes widened in shock as he dropped to his hands and knees. Hexus and all the others at Palutena's temple were speechless. Dark Sanguine was not as affected, but nonetheless genuinely surprised.

"Holy shit..." was all Hexus and Dark Sanguine could say.

"**That's not all!**" Proteus continued,"**Valiscore! Seraphim! The jig...is officially up.**" The two other cloaked members of Proteus' party discarded their robes to reveal the two remaining IMEC elites, who still willfully served Proteus, despite his atrocities.

"This whole time..." Sanguine barely got those words out,"You knew...this WHOLE TIME!"

"**I'm no fool Sanguine, I've known that you would betray me before you even planned to.**" Proteus said slowly. "**Valiscore, Seraphim.**"

"Sir!" The two other mercenaries said in unison.

"**Go and steer our base into a secluded location far from here, preferably high up...I'll take care of these two.**" Proteus ordered.

"Yes sir, right away!" Valiscore affirmed as he and Seraphim both flew up to the base, it soon began moving through the clouds and disappeared into the horizon.

"**Interesting huh, I'll bet you never knew our base was also an airship.**" Proteus said quietly, cackling at his remark.

Sanguine ignored his former leader's wisecrack. He began seething with rage at the fact of Proteus toying with him and his friends. He clenched his fists tightly. Dark Sanguine however, was not angry, but simply unamused by this event.

"So Proteus was Malus...heh heh heh ha ha HA HA AHHAA HA HAAA HA HA HAA! Do you really think someone like you can possibly instill fear into me and others?! Who the hell do you even think you are anyways?!" Dark Sanguine said unaffected by this current ordeal.

"**God.**"Proteus said flatly,"**and yes, I am fear itself, this was all apart of my master plan, I will claim my first victory here with both of your heads and then I shall move on with your friends and then this whole damn universe! I, Proteus, am the master of my destiny and yours, and your destiny looks quite...deadly.**"

"Ha! Oh please, give me a break," Dark Sanguine said unthreatened,"If you think I will be threatened by some sort-of Ganondorf rip-off, then you've got another thing coming!"

Before Dark Sanguine could charge at Proteus, Sanguine beat him to the punch and appeared in front of Proteus in less than a millisecond, backing his fist with fiery wrath, he sent it sailing at Proteus at blinding speeds. Proteus blocked his punch completely with one finger, Dark Sanguine staring in awe, and regular Sanguine still getting more angry.

"**Absolutely pathetic.**" Proteus remarked at Sanguine in spite before sending him flying with a punch of his own, Sanguine was able to catch himself before hitting the ground, sliding to a stop a long distance from Proteus.

"**Unlike my 'Malus' facade,**"Proteus began,"**I purposefully made myself weaker so that you wouldn't suspect it as me, now though, now is where the real fun begins-**"

"JUST SHUT UP!" Sanguine yelled as he charged forward at Proteus, sending punch after punch flying at Proteus lightning fast and in all directions. Proteus was effortlessly dodging all of Sanguine's punches and even took a moment to mockingly yawn at him, this only made him angrier. Dark Sanguine took the opportunity to leap in and also rapidly swing at Proteus, Proteus was dodging both easily, showing zero exertion. Eventually, Proteus got tired of it and sent both Sanguines flying in opposite directions with an Almighty Push.

Proteus dusted himself off and stood up, he felt a light sting and rose his hand up to his left cheek. He brought it back to himself and saw that there was a single speck of blood on his finger.

"**Congradulations, you scratched me...**" Proteus said to Dark Sanguine as the doppelgänger slowly rose from the rubble he was thrown into.

["_Sanguine calm down NOW! You're overheating again!_"] Hexus pleaded

"I DON'T CARE!" Sanguine's enraged voice rang out as the angry mercenary shot out from under the rubble at flew at Proteus once more. Proteus dodged to the side and swiftly neck chopped Sanguine which knocked him out cold.

"Shit shit shit! Not good not good!" Dark Sanguine said under his breath. "Palutena, get us out of here!"

"Right away!" Palutena said as she extracted Dark Sanguine and the unconscious Sanguine from the volcano, as they were rising into the air Proteus remarked to Dark Sanguine.

"**Go ahead, run...this is only just beginning, and believe me when I say this, I will kill you all.**" Proteus laughed before warping himself to the IMEC Air Fortress.

* * *

**(Medical Bay)**

**22:00 Hours / Night**

Sanguine lied there unconscious in the hospital bed, Hexus and the medics on site working out his ordeal. Argus and Pit both walked in and stood next to Hexus.

"How is he doing?" Argus inquired

"Not too good," Hexus replied,"His little episode against Proteus overheated his Exo-suit too much and his body is having negative effects as a result."

"What kind of effects?" Pit asked in concern.

"His brain seems to be stuck in this rage induced limbo, and he's currently comatose. I'm not sure if he'll let up any time soon." Hexus said with sadness clouding his voice. The room's members all stood in silence before filing out of the room, Sanguine however, was at war with his mind.

Sanguine woke up abruptly to find himself in a room of all white. He slowly got up and tried to scout for signs of life, scanning the horizon, but ultimately seeing nothing but white all around. After a while a loud, booming, yet somehow comforting voice spoke up.

"Hello Sanguine." The voice said. Sanguine turned around and came face to face with a 6 foot walking and talking Hot Pocket with a laurel wreath and toga robes.

"Y-you're a Hot P-Pocket!" Sanguine stated in surprise.

"I am aware,"The large Hot Pocket said,"I...am the God of Hot Pockets and I have come to unlock your true potential."

"What do you mean?" Sanguine asked in question.

"What I mean is your Exo-suit there." The God of Hot Pockets said, nudging one of his top breaded corners at Sanguine's combat suit."That suit is doing more damage to you on than it would be taken off."

"But Proteus said-" Sanguine began, but was cut off by the holy Hot Pocket.

"What Proteus said is a whole bunch of lies! The suit restricts some of your basic cognitive and emotional functions like your common sense and reasoning." The God of Hot Pockets said.

"But why would Proteus do something like that?"

"He did it so that you and your crew members would be more apt killing machines," The God of Hot Pockets replied,"If you lost yourself to rage like that, then you would be a relentless killer."

"So what now?" Sanguine asked,"do I ditch the suit?"

"I would advise so, but preferably in a secluded, far away location." The God of Hot Pockets said.

"But why?" Sanguine asked as curiosity got the better of him.

"The transition from restricted power to unrestrained power causes quite a bit of...collateral." The glorified Hot Pocket said.

"But what about the power craze?" Sanguine asked remembering Hexus' statement.

"Another lie conjured by Proteus, look just discard the suit and win." The Hot Pocket said

"Thank you God of Hot Pockets, I'll never forget you." Sanguine said with gratitude.

"Do not fret Sanguine, defeat Proteus and save Skyworld."

"I will, count on it." Sanguine reassured. With that, the God of Hot Pockets waddled away before disappearing into the whiteness.

Sanguine slowly awoke to find himself in Palutena's medical bay, he saw Palutena holding his hand and sitting next to his bedside, fast asleep. Sanguine checked his watch and saw that it was the middle of the night.

"Figures." He said quietly. Sanguine unplugged his IV and heart monitor, before utilizing his stealth training to slip through the cracks undetected. He snuck out onto the landing dock and took off, this time racing to the land below.

As he broke through the clouds unto the human populated lands below, he noticed just how beautiful the world was below the sky. Sanguine touched down in a field, far away from the humans and from Skyworld. He undid the first latch on his Exo-suit, steam shooting out of the open pocket, he undid the second and third latches on his suit, steam coming out of those as well. Sanguine undid the final latch of his suit, as the armored fatigues clambered to the floor Sanguine felt the immense power spike travel throughout him as his dark-blue aura radiated off him so powerfully, it caused earthquakes around him. Sanguine never felt SO alive before in his life. He felt the flow of new emotions and such return to his head as he regained full control over his emotions and unrestricted power.

Sanguine kept the pants and utility belt portions of his body suit with him, because he knew the power restrictions were held in the torso piece.

Sanguine flew around the lands faster than ever before, feeling like a bird let out of its cage, and he was ready to free Skyworld of the liberation cage Proteus had trapped them in.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Holy mother of plot twists Batman!**

**Malus was Proteus the WHOLE time, but I digress.**

**The whole gang's together again and ready to show Proteus and his army who's boss!**

**Who will win what? Find out, next time on Dragon Ball Z!  
**

**-TwoFatNinjas**


	6. Chapter 7: The Real Sanguine

**The Real Sanguine****:**

**(Palutena's Dining Hall)**

**8:00 Hours / Daytime**

Everyone except Sanguine was gathered at the dining hall's main table. A few of them eating Palutena's breakfast, except Viridi, who brought her own fruit salad, a few others chatting, and Hexus typing away furiously at his computer. Dark Sanguine took a swig of beer from a bottle that Argus brought and passed it to Magnus, who also took a long swig.

"Too light for my taste..."Magnus said.

"Everything's too light for you Magnus." Dark Pit stated in annoyance.

Eventually, after all was settled, Palutena got everyone's attention.

"Okay," She began,"has anyone seen where Sanguine went? Because he just disappeared from the hospital last night and never came back."

"No not at all." Pit said with concern for his friend's disappearance.

"Hexus, you know anything?" Argus said.

"What do you think I've been doing since we woke up?" Hexus said, not turning his attention away from his screen's monitor."Proteus installed tracking chips in all of our team's Exo-suits. I managed to deactivate mine, Argus', and Sanguine's, but I can still manage to tap into his chip." Hexus continued typing,"Aaaaannd...got it! He's...on the surface world?"

"The surface world?" Phosphora said,"what's he doing there?"

"I have no idea, but we need him back here as soon as possible." Hexus insisted

"Well in that case you and Argus should go and find him since you know him the best." Palutena said

"I'm going too," Dark Sanguine said,"If worse comes to worse, then he'll need some sense knocked into him."

The three of them left for the landing dock, leaving the others to discuss war strategies and placement of soldiers.

* * *

The three broke the cloud barrier as they headed towards the surface world. They touched down in a field far away from the human village below.

"Start searching, he should be near us." Hexus ordered the others.

The three started looking around feverishly for Sanguine's whereabouts, eventually Argus turned up with something.

"Hey guys over here!" Argus signaled. The two others both went to where Argus signaled and found the discarded torso piece of Sanguine's Exo-suit.

"NO NO NO NO NOOOO!" Hexus yelled in surprise, picking up the armor."Dammit Sanguine what have you done!"

"What is it?" Dark Sanguine inquired.

"He discarded his chest piece." Argus said,"the guy's gonna fry himself in the ensuing power craze and die."

"We have to find him NOW!" Hexus ordered, dropping the chest piece."I developed something to curb destructive power like this, if we act fast, we can save him."

The three took off to the skies above and split up.

* * *

**MEANWHILE AT SANGUINE'S LOCATION**

Sanguine blasted another hole through the last one of Proteus' Gemini Legionaries that he sent after him. Sanguine raised his arms, absorbing the power of all 25 of the slaughtered soldiers.

"Ahh, this World of Warcraft style power grinding is really paying off." Sanguine said, relishing in the immense power he has gathered.

Sanguine noticed a giant black mirror fly out of the sky and land in front of him. A shadowy, evil IMEC Elite stepped out of the mirror and faced Sanguine. The mirror behind him shattered and crumbled to the ground.

"Seraphim..." Sanguine said, crossing his arms."Never thought Proteus would start sending his dogs out to get me."

"Shut your mouth, traitor." Seraphim said,"Lord Proteus has sent me to deal with you upon my request. And I see that you have removed your Exo-suit, what? Trying to kill yourself before I do?"

"You say that like you'll defeat me." Sanguine said unwavered

"You and I both know that I've always been stronger than you Sanguine." Seraphim said,"and now I will wipe the floor with your face you traitorous bastard!"

Seraphim dashed at Sanguine, blade at the ready. Sanguine vanished before Seraphim could land the hit, and knocked him into the wall behind him.

Seraphim got up quickly,"Ggh, how is he faster than me..." He said under his breath, Seraphim sent a charged energy blast at Sanguine, Sanguine reciprocated this by sending his own blast back at him. The blast blew through Seraphim's and almost hit him if he hadn't jumped out of the way. Seraphim saw a flash of dark-blue light out of his peripheral and punched in that direction, hitting Sanguine in the face.

"Ha! Gotcha bitch!"Seraphim yelled in triumph. Sanguine cut his moment of joy into pieces by grabbing his hand while it was still connecting with his face and crushed his hand with his grip.

"Aaarghh!" Seraphim yelled as he reeled his hand back in pain. When he turned his attention back to Sanguine, he saw that he was gone! Before Seraphim could react, he was launched into the sky by Sanguine. Sanguine leapt up into the air with him and kneed him in the spine, breaking it like a twig. Seraphim landed on his back with a thud.

"AArgAarrraaaaAAaagghhh!" Seraphim screamed out brokenly.

Sanguine landed next to Seraphim's broken body, unamused. Seraphim rose his hand up to him in a stopping motion.

"Wait! Sanguine, please, think about what you're doing! Remember all the good times we had?!" Please have mercy" Seraphim pleaded with Sanguine, but his cries fell upon deaf ears.

"I lost all respect for you the second you sided with Proteus." Sanguine said coldly before raising his foot and bringing it down on Seraphim's head. Seraphim rose his arms up in agony before they dropped to his sides, unmoving.

Sanguine took Seraphim's power and noticed the immense spike. Sanguine reached for his utility belt and noticed that Seraphim had shattered his BIC in the fight.

"Ehh, I never used it anyways." Sanguine said carelessly, tossing the shattered device over his shoulder. Sanguine looked back at Seraphim's battered corpse, baring his teeth in regret at the sight.

"We used to be such good friends,"Sanguine said quietly,"It never had to end like this..." Sanguine gave him a moment of silence before returning to Palutena's temple.

* * *

**(Palutena's Dining Hall)**  
**13:00 Hours / Afternoon**

Everyone had gathered in the dining hall once more, Hexus, Argus, and Dark Sanguine had returned from their search having found nothing.

"Have you three found ANY sign for Sanguine's whereabouts?" Palutena asked urgently.

Hexus shook his head slowly and sadly. Everyone else at the table was silent.

"Dammit Sanguine, where are you!?" Hexus said in frustration, slamming his fist on the table.

"Right here." Sanguine said darkly from the entrance of the dining hall. Everyone turned their attention to Sanguine and noticed that he was missing the top of his Exo-suit, showing off his MANLY muscles.

Palutena ran over and hugged him,"Sanguine! You're back!" Palutena quickly brought herself back and brushed herself off, remembering that there were others there.

"Sanguine, what the hell?! Where have you bee-"

"Hexus stop." Sanguine cut him off, catching him and everyone else off guard.

"I've been out." Sanguine said before taking a seat at the opposite head of the table and chugging beer out of a bottle.

"Uh well then, why...did you take off your Exo-suit? You might die you know! Hexus said

"I won't." Sanguine replied,"The God of Hot Pockets said that I won't."

Everyone looked at Sanguine like he was some sort-of crazyass hermit.

"Ooookay then," Dark Sanguine said,"Everyone just back away slowly..."

"Hold up,"Hexus said,"He's kind of right."

"What? There's a God of Hot Pockets?"Pit asked

"No, he's holding back his power craze with sheer willpower." Hexus stated mistified.

Everyone gathered around Hexus' computer and saw Sanguine's power signature.

"He seems to be holding the power spike at bay, but it's still there." Hexus said

"So what's that supposed to mean for me?" Sanguine asked, still taking swigs of the alcohol.

"It means that if you have another rage spell, you may release the pent-up energy and ACTUALLY die." Hexus said bluntly.

Sanguine stood up from the table,"Well, if we're gonna train, then we're gonna do it my way."

* * *

**(Training Grounds)**

Sanguine walked along the row of others who were lined up at attention. All of them holding machine guns. Hexus, Argus, and Dark Sanguine holding them at the ready, but the Kid Icarus characters holding them flimsily, by the barrel of the gun, or straight up dropping them. Sanguine corrected them all, and once all was settled began.

"People, soon you will face the ultimate threat that currently endangers us all, and if any of you are going to survive this slaughter fest, then you need to learn how to properly operate and use modern weaponry and machinery." Sanguine said,"let's...begin."

Sanguine showed them all the basics of machine guns, how to aim, shoot, and reload the weapon, as well as properly maintain its upkeep. Later, Sanguine showed them proper usage of other weapons. Pistols, shotguns, rocket launchers, SMG's, sniper rifles, grenades, etc. After the weapons training portion, Sanguine and Argus demonstrated stealth takedowns and hand-to-hand combat techniques. Hexus taught them how to use computers and other technology and machines.

After all of that, Sanguine graduated all of them from basic training and began forming the proper army.

"Alright, now that all of you are proper soldiers of modern weaponry, I will assign you all positions in our forces, akin to your expertise." Sanguine said.

"I want Pit, Phosphora, Dark Pit, Argus, Dark Sanguine, and Magnus to be our front-line captains for our army."

"Right!" The six of them said.

"I want Palutena and Viridi to be our lead battle medics with the other doctors."

"Of course." The two exclaimed

"I want Dyntos and Hexus to be our army's weapon, armor, and gear smiths."

"You got it!" Both of the them said.

"And lastly I shall be the super awesome, emperor lord-of-all, overlord, taskmaster supreme!" Sanguine said.

"Don't you think our army needs a name?" Palutena suggested.

"I was just getting to that." Sanguine said,"Our army shall be known as...

**THE UNITED LEGION**

**(TUL)**

"Alright T.U.L. forces! We launch our campaign at dawn!" Sanguine yelled over the united army of Centurions, Forces of Nature, Gemini Legionaries, and Dyntos' created army, receiving a resounding cheer.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**I know that this chapter was shorter than the others, but I'm on a tight schedule and I'm slowly leading up to the great war on Proteus.**

**Anyways, everyone is now fully loaded and GUNNING to win...okay I suck...**

**Either way, leave a review, like and favorite if you can, and expect more in the near future. Also, thanks to X-ray99 for following the story, I apologize for not addressing this earlier, but I was busy writing chapters, regardless I thank you all for inspiring me to continue this story.**

**See you all real soon!**

**-TwoFatNinjas**


	7. Chapter 8: The Bull Rears it's Horns

**The Bull Rears its Horns:**

**(Palutena's Temple)**

**Hot Spring**

**23:00 Hours / Night**

Sanguine was relaxing in Palutena's Hot Spring, trying his best to unwind after the day's events. He took a swig from his beer bottle and breathed out a heaved sigh. It was the night before their first battle and everyone had been given the night to prepare and/or unwind, Sanguine took the opportunity to take his time to think and plan. Sanguine was too busy running his train of thought to notice Hexus, Dark Sanguine, and Pit join him in the spring.

"Ahhh, I love hot springs so much. Did I ever tell any of you guys that?" Pit stated

"Too many times." Sanguine said back flatly, opening his eyes.

"So how's the short bus treatin' ya kiddo?" Dark Sanguine asked Sanguine sarcastically.

"They're waiting for you outside buddy, you're their star recipient." Sanguine retorted in comeback.

"HA HA HA HAAAA HAHAHA HA!" Dark Sanguine began with great exaggeration,"Oh man Sanguine, too fresh dude, I REALLY like the cut of your jib sonny Jim."

"Shut up dude." Sanguine said, he turned his attention to Hexus. "Did any of the others say what they were doing?"

"Well the other guys are getting last minute training done, Dyntos is overseeing the production of our gear and weapons, Palutena and Viridi are discussing the placement of our soldiers and infantry, and Phosphora is...somewhere." Hexus said

"Somewhere?" Sanguine asked

"Oh crap!" Dark Sanguine exclaimed,"I was supposed to meet her on the roof for our date."

"Date?! Since when were you two dating?" Sanguine asked in surprise.

"Well buddy, while you were out XP grinding in the wilderness, me and Phosphora got talking and we swapped stories and I told her jokes, she laughed a lot, and I grew a pair and asked her out, sooooo yeah, we're dating." Dark Sanguine responded

He got out from the hot spring, put on some pants and flew out of the room and towards the rooftops.

"Well I had no idea that was happening at all..." Sanguine said unamused

"I'm pooped,"Pit said,"I'll see you two tomorrow morning, heil TUL!"

Sanguine began silently cackling to himself,"I told him to start saying heil TUL, hee hee, I might as well start calling him Mini-Hitler, hee hee." Sanguine whispered to Hexus.

Hexus followed Pit with his eyes while he exited the chamber, right after he left, Hexus snapped his attention back to Sanguine.

"Sanguine we have a big problem." Hexus blurted out urgently.

"Problem? What kind of problem?" Sanguine asked curiously.

"I didn't want anyone else to hear about this firsthand except for you, because...well" Hexus struggled.

"Out with it mah boi!" Sanguine insisted

"Because I want you to take care of it stealthily, and on your own." Hexus said

"Black ops mission huh...I can dig it, so then what's the issue?" Sanguine asked.

"Remember that one device that Proteus urgently pestered us to find on every raid trip we went on."

"Yeah the Murky-timey-wimey-pooperthingymajig." Sanguine babbled

"The Merkabuh, Sanguine, and I'm bringing it up because Proteus...Proteus, found it." Hexus said quietly in fear.

"So what? He finds lots of things." Sanguine replied nonchalantly

"Dude! Did you forget what the Merkabuh can allow Proteus to achieve?!"

"I forgot...elaborate, if you will" Sanguine said, crossing his arms behind his head in a relaxed manner

Hexus sat up in the spring and re-explained,"The Merkabuh is a tool utilized by one in order for them to achieve and fully use any reserves of power they have in store to their fullest potential, in short, this is a REALLY bad thing in the hands of Proteus because he has the power of a god, and not just any god, a God of Creation, a GOD among GODS!"

"Again, I fail to see why this is a huge problem,"Sanguine said unfazed,"So Proteus will be a tougher cookie to crack, it's no sweat off my back, Hexus."

"The problem is that Proteus killed the god and took every last ounce of power from him, Proteus has a mortal body so he couldn't intake all the power at once, otherwise the massive overhaul of energy would tear him across the dimensional rift, so he had to stockpile most of the power in a hidden location. According to my research, this whole entire time we've faced him, the guy's only been using 1/10th of his maximum power, you saw how badly he battered you around when he was only at a 10th, now imagine him with ALL the power! The Merkabuh can allow him to take on all of his power without being destroyed, that's the problem Sanguine!" Hexus stated firmly.

Sanguine sat up from his relaxed position and stared at Hexus.

"Damn, that really is a problem." Sanguine said, a look of concern crossing his face.

"Look, it's simple, I found the IMEC sky fortress, it's hidden at the base of Mount Olympus." Hexus began,"All you have to do is go in, steal the Merkabuh, and get the hell out of there and back here in one piece, simple?" Hexus said

"Sure, sure, I get it." Sanguine said as he got out of the Hot Spring.

"Also, don't tell ANYBODY about our mission, this is to remain A and B information, understand?" Hexus said, staring into Sanguine's soul with piercing eyes, trying to find any signs of lying, but finding none.

"Of course, but can we at least tell them about the Merkabuh?" Sanguine said

"IF you recover it." Hexus reassured,"I've informed Argus beforehand, I told him to create a diversion so that you can sneak by."

"Alrighty then" Sanguine said, brushing back his hair.

"Good." Hexus replied, adjusting his glasses.

* * *

Sanguine was sneaking by the main hall, and ducked behind a pillar when he saw Magnus, Palutena, Argus, and Viridi in the hall.

"Have any of you seen where Sanguine has gone? I checked the spring where he said he'd be, and he wasn't there." Palutena asked the others.

"No, I was busy training, but that guy still owes me a beer!" Magnus said.

"Knowing...him, he's probably off in Lala Land eating those disgusting things he calls "Hot Pockets"." Viridi said in annoyance.

Sanguine clenched his hands at the sound of that.

{Oh you did not just say that!} Sanguine thought

Sanguine's growing anger was cut off from the sound of Argus signaling his diversion.

"HEY GUYS, LOOK OVER THERE! DARK SANGUINE IS MAKING OUT WITH PHOSPHORA ON THE ROOF!" Argus blurted out, signaling to the window

The four gathered at the window and saw before them, the copious amount of face contact between the two lovers.

"**DISGUSTING**!" Viridi yelled,"why is one of my TOP commanders kissing that WEIRDO!?"

"Aww, lighten up Viridi," Palutena said,"I for one think that their love is adorable."

Magnus wolf whistled at the two causing Phosphora to pull away and hide her face in embarrassment, while Dark Sanguine simply crossed his arms and stared at the four onlookers in disappointment. Argus turned his head around and winked in Sanguine's general direction, Sanguine reciprocated this gesture with a thumbs up and dashed towards the exit before anyone else could notice him.

Sanguine ran towards the landing dock, and as gracefully as a Russian olympian, swan dived off of the edge, he decided it would be best if he hung low on the clouds as to avoid too much attention, he looked back at Dark Sanguine and Phosphora and saw DS tell her something and Phosphora laugh uproariously as a result.

"I'll never understand those two...but, gross...Sub-plot..." Sanguine said as he dipped below the ozone barrier.

Sanguine flew in the night for what seemed like hours before he came upon Mount Olympus. Sanguine saw the IMEC Air Fortress parked behind the mountain's base and he landed softly behind the structure, he snuck up on one of Proteus' Gemini grunts that was standing guard and snapped his neck, he took his power and proceeded to do the same with the other grunt on duty. After taking care of those two, Sanguine put his hand on the door's access console and the door console rejected him.

"Of course Proteus would bar me from entering, I'm an idiot."

Sanguine put two fingers against his head and concentrated as he vibrated his molecules enough to phase through the door like a ghost. One of Seraphim's specialties that Sanguine acquired when he absorbed his former friend's energy force.

Sanguine moved through the vents like an alien as to not be spotted by any night watch patrolling the halls, he took a wild guess and landed in Proteus' main office. Sanguine noticed that along the way there was not a single soul in the halls, rooms, anywhere.

"This is obviously a trap, but as long as I'm here, I might as well get what I came here for." Sanguine said to himself.

Sanguine rooted around behind Proteus' desk until he found a safe, he repeatedly punched the safe until it cracked open, inside...The Merkabuh!

"Heh heh heh, must be my lucky day." Sanguine said as he pocketed the Arc Reactor like device.

Sanguine wasted no time escaping the base, and made it out the front door. He began to take off, but was blasted into the clearing by an unseen blast.

"Going somewhere?" A ghostly voice said in a soothing manner, akin to a butler.

Sanguine recovered quickly and looked up to see a smoking hand, radiating with a evil and pungent dark-green energy slowly lower itself to reveal a relaxed Valiscore.

"Valiscore, buddy! It's been a while hasn't it?" Sanguine said in a friendly, yet sarcastic manner.

"We are not "buddies", you and I both know that." Valiscore said in a calm and composed manner,"Master Proteus has called me to bring forth your execution and to retrieve the Merkabuh."

"Someone pick up the phone, cause I fu***BLEEP***ing called it!" Sanguine yelled out.

"Excuse me?" Valiscore said in confusion.

"I knew this was a trap, getting this piece of crap was far too easy." Sanguine reassured.

"Regardless of these...formalities, I still require the Merkabuh, AND your head on a pike." Valiscore said in his calm British accent.

"Not if I destroy you and your fat-ass mustache!" Sanguine said taking a battle stance.

"That is unlikely." Valiscore replied

Sanguine dashed at Valiscore with his dark-blue Rasengan blast ready to strike, Valiscore leapt up into the air, arms crossed against his back in a dignified manner, and kicked Sanguine in the face with little effort. Valiscore landed gracefully and Sanguine was sent crashing into the mountainside.

"Unlike Seraphim," Valiscore began,"I know just how strong you really are, and I have prepared accordingly."

"Have you now." Sanguine chuckled as he warped back to his original spot, barely fazed by the kick.

"Indeed, Seraphim got too cocky when he challenged you, I told him of your new immense amount of strength, but he wouldn't listen...he paid the ultimate price in the end though." Valiscore reminisced.

Sanguine and Valiscore both dashed at eachother, exchanging punches and kicks Dragon Ball Z style, it ended abruptly with Sanguine upper cutting Valiscore, and the latter kicking Sanguine in the ribs, sending both combatants flying in opposite directions. Sanguine got up fast, only to see that Valiscore had disappeared.

"Did I scare him away...I hope I did, the wuss." Sanguine said

"Far from it." Valiscore said as he appeared behind Sanguine.

Sanguine punched behind him and slammed Valiscore in the noggin, Valiscore flew back and rolled on the ground exploding into dark-green smoke.

"Oh no, not this again." Sanguine said while closing his eyes in annoyance.

"Yes this again!" Sanguine heard Valiscore yell.

Sanguine looked up to see multiple clones of Valiscore pop out of every nook and cranny possible. They all stared daggers at Sanguine, and he looked back in equal anger. The clones all dashed at Sanguine and he began to fight them off one by one. The process seemed to repeat itself, clones would get a few hits in, Sanguine would eliminate a lot, but it seemed that more and more would continue to pile in.

"What is this, The Matrix?!" Sanguine yelled as he blasted away another clone.

"I'm gonna have to do "the move" if I plan to win this." Sanguine said

Sanguine warped into the sky and put his hands to his side with them close together as dark-blue energy began forming in them.

"Kaaaaaaaaa-"

The clones leapt into the sky after him.

"Meeeeeeeeeh-"

The clones were all in the air, attempting to close in.

"Haaaaaaaaa-"

The clones began flying faster, brandishing dark-green energy blasts.

"Meeeeeeeeeeeeh-"

The clones were mere inches away, the first batch were about to fire their blasts.

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

As Sanguine yelled that, a massive pillar of dark-blue energy fired from his hands which collided with and vaporized every clone on the way down. The blast made contact with the ground and caused a nuclear warhead sized explosion that was blinding and LOUD as all hell. As the blast cleared up, Sanguine landed on the ground somewhat mildly spent from the energy expenditure. A mocking slow clap erupted from the new crater formed in the earth by Sanguine as Valiscore stepped out of the hole somewhat amused.

"Congratulations Sanguine, you and Master Proteus are the only two who have ever successfully destroyed my clones." Valiscore commended.

Sanguine knew that the two fighters would only be evenly matched if they continued this battle, Sanguine fired a blast at the ground which resulted in a smoke cloud to erupt between the two, Valiscore began firing wildly in the smoke, but it was too late, Sanguine was already gone. Valiscore pinged Proteus.

"Sir, should I go after him?"

"**No, let him go, he'll return to the field of battle in due time.**" Proteus responded.

Valiscore ended the call and looked into the sky above.

"Sanguine I swear on my grave that I will kill you, no matter the cost." Valiscore said slowly.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Sorry that this chapter took so long, I'm currently on vacation in Europe and time zones and attempting to find good Wi-Fi is a real problem for me. That and I have to write this from my IPad, but I digress.**

**More to come, I'll try to get these chapters out to the best of my ability, but it may be awhile, so don't heckle me for being slow.**

**See you all (hopefully) soon!**

**-TwoFatNinjas**


End file.
